Punjab all set for multi-cornered contest with all eyes on Sidhu, Mann

Punjab is all set for multi-cornered contest with 2.14 crore electorates, including 1.02 crore women, will cast votes on Sunday for the 117-member Assembly. The hot seats comprise Amritsar (East) from where Congress state unit chief Navjot Sidhu is in the race to retain it and Dhuri from where AAP's chief ministerial face Bhagwant Mann is trying luck for the first time.

The youngest in the political landscape is controversial crowd-puller candidate Sidhu Moosewala, while the eldest one is Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) patriarch Parkash Singh Badal, 94, whose feet were touched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi owing to humility after filing his nomination papers for the Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency in 2019.

In the Punjab polls, 1,304 candidates -- 1209 men, 93 women and two transgenders -- are in the fray, Chief Electoral Officer S. Karuna Raju told the media on Saturday. The counting of votes will be held on March 10.