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हिन्दी 
A voter turnout of 33.42% was recorded till 1pm in the polling for the Ludhiana West Assembly byelection in Punjab on Thursday.
Polling began under tight security at 7am and it will continue till 6pm.
The counting of votes will be held on June 23.
The Ludhiana West assembly seat fell vacant following the death of AAP MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi in January.
There are 14 candidates in the fray and 1,75,469 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise. Of them, 85,371 are women and 10 belong to the third gender.
AAP candidate Sanjeev Arora reached a polling station along with his family members to exercise his franchise in the morning. Before casting their votes, the Aroras paid obeisance at a gurdwara, a temple and the Dargah Pir in Phillaur.
Speaking to reporters, Arora appealed to the people to come out in large numbers to vote.
Congress candidate Bharat Bhushan Ashu, BJP nominee Jiwan Gupta and Shiromani Akali Dal’s Parupkar Singh Ghuman also cast their votes.
Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann took to social media to urge voters to cast their vote. “My appeal to the voters of Ludhiana West is that you must exercise your right to vote. You must fulfil your duty for the development and progress of your area. Do not consider today a holiday, definitely go and cast your vote,” Mann posted on X in Punjabi.
Ludhiana deputy commissioner-cum-district election officer Himanshu Jain also cast his vote in the bypoll.
A total of 194 polling stations have been set up with live webcasting facility. Designated counters have been set up at the entrance of polling stations for voters to securely deposit their mobile devices. These counters were managed by trained volunteers using jute or cloth bag mobile holders.
“In a first-of-its-kind initiative, all polling stations in Ludhiana West have made arrangements for safe mobile phone deposit aims to enhance the voter experience while at the same time upholding the secrecy of voting,” the chief electoral officer, Punjab said in a post on X.
Polling stations were equipped with poll volunteers, wheelchairs and help desk to assist voters, said officials.
The voting process is being monitored in real-time from the integrated command and control centre at the district administrative complex. As many as 235 CCTV cameras have been installed at polling stations.
The ruling AAP has fielded Rajya Sabha member Arora for the bypoll. Arora, 61, is a Ludhiana-based industrialist and is also known for his social work. He runs the Krishna Pran Breast Cancer Charitable Trust.
The Congress has nominated former minister and Punjab Congress working president Ashu, 51. Ashu had been MLA twice from this seat in 2012 and 2017. He was defeated by Gogi by 7,512 votes in the 2022 assembly polls.
The BJP candidate is a member of the core committee of Punjab BJP. Gupta was earlier the party’s state general secretary.
The Ludhiana West bypoll is seen as a litmus test for Mann and the ruling party’s national leadership which aggressively campaigned to retain this seat.
