TIL Desk/National/Chandigarh/Panaji/ Voting began in Punjab and Goa on Saturday morning for the 2017 Assembly elections. The states are first to go into polling as elections for five states including Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Uttarakhand are being held simultaneously in the months of February and March.
The counting of votes for all five states will be done on March 11. The voting for 40 seats in Goa started at 7:00 am while in Punjab, which has 117 assembly seats, it started at 8:00 am. Till 11:30 AM, 34 per cent people in Goa and 14 per cent in Punjab cast their votes. Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is contesting for the first time in both the states.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted this morning, “urging people of Punjab and Goa to turnout in record numbers and vote in the assembly elections.” He particularly urged young people to vote. The Akali Dal-BJP alliance has ruled Punjab for two straight terms which is ten years and both the Congress and AAP hope to benefit from an anti-incumbency sentiment.
