Tarn Taran bypoll on Nov 11, counting on Nov 14: ECI
According to the ECI notification, nomination filing will start on October 13, while October 21 will be the last date for filing the nominations. Scrutiny of the nomination will be held on October 22, with November 11 as the polling day.
The voting for the Tarn Taran assembly segment will be held on November 11, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Monday.
“The counting of votes will be conducted on November 14,” chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar said.
The seat fell vacant following the death of AAP MLA Kashmir Singh Sohal, 62, on June 27 this year.
According to the ECI notification, nomination filing will start on October 13, while October 21 will be the last date for filing the nominations. Scrutiny of the nomination will be held on October 22, with November 11 as the polling day.
The polls are likely to be a multi-corner contest with all the major political parties having named their candidates.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) has fielded Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa for the bypoll, while the BJP has chosen Harjit Singh Sandhu as its candidate. The Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De), led by jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, holds considerable sway in the constituency but has not yet announced its candidate. Meanwhile, the breakaway faction of SAD, led by Giani Harpreet Singh, has formed a panel to decide on its candidate for the election. On Sunday, Congress named Karanbir Singh Burj as its candidate for the bypoll.
Meanwhile, Amritpal’s father, Tarsem Singh, appealed to slain human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra’s wife, Paramjit Kaur Khalra, to contest the bypoll on their behalf, but she has reportedly declined. Recently, Tarsem, in a statement, had also said that if Sandeep Singh alias Sunny, who is an accused in the murder case of Shiv Sena (Taksali) leader Sudhir Suri, announced to fight polls, then his party would support his candidature. Sunny had on September 10 attacked three former police officers inside Patiala Central Jail. On September 18, one of the victims, former inspector Suba Singh, 83, died of injuries. The other two cops, former DSP Gurbachan Singh and former inspector Inderjit Singh, had suffered injuries in the attack.
However, Sunny’s kin have made no statement in this regard.
Ground reports from the constituency suggest a possible tie-up between Akali Dal (Waris Punjab De) and the SAD breakaway faction.
ECI notifies RS bypoll schedule
The vacancy arose due to the resignation of Sanjeev Arora on July 1, 2025. Arora, who was elected to the Rajya Sabha in April 2022, stepped down after being elected to the state legislative assembly from the Ludhiana West constituency in a bypoll. The term of the vacated seat is up to April 9, 2028.
According to the notification issued by the ECI, the bypoll will be conducted to fill the said vacancy in accordance with the provisions of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. As per the schedule, the nomination process started on Monday, and October 13 is the last date for filing nominations.
Scrutiny of nominations will be done on October 14, and the last date for withdrawal of candidature is October 16. Polling, if necessary, will be held on October 24. In consultation with the Punjab government, the election commission has designated Ram Lok Khatana, secretary, Punjab Vidhan Sabha Secretariat, as the returning officer for the byelection and Jaswinder Singh, deputy secretary, Punjab Vidhan Sabha Secretariat, as the assistant returning officer to assist in the conduct of the election process. HTC
