A total of 16 candidates have filed their nomination papers for the Dakha assembly by-election scheduled on October 21, 2019. Today, a total of 11 candidates from Congress, Lok Insaf Party (LIP), Bahujan Samaj Party, Aapna Punjab Party, Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), National Justice Party and three as independents filed their nomination papers.The candidates who filed their nomination papers today include Sandeep Singh Sandhu and Puneeta Sandhu (as covering candidate) from Congress party, Sukhdev Singh and Sarabjit Kaur (as covering candidate) from LIP, Baldev Singh from Bahujan Samaj Party, Simrandeep Singh from Aapna Punjab Party, Joginder Singh from Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), Harbans Singh, Gurdeep Singh Kahlon and Neelam as Independent candidates, while Gurjit Singh from National Justice Party.The by-election from Dakha assembly constituency is scheduled on October 21, 2019. The other candidates, who have already filed their nomination papers are Manpreet Singh Ayali and Harkinder Singh (as covering candidate) from Shiromani Akali Dal, Amandeep Singh Mohi and Gurdeep Kaur (as covering candidate) from Aam Aadmi Party and Jai Parkash Jain as an Independent.
District Election Officer Mr Pradeep Kumar Agrawal informed that the scrutiny of nomination papers would be done on October 1, 2019, while the withdrawal of nominations can be done till October 3, 2019. The polling of votes would be done on October 21, 2019, while the counting would be on October 24, 2019. He informed that there are 220 polling stations in Dakha assembly constituency-68, and there are 1,84,306 general voters along with 780 service voters.Mr Agrawal clarified that candidates can spend a maximum of Rs 28 lakh for this by-election. He also informed that different cells such as flying squad, static surveillance team, expenditure monitoring cell, MCC and complaint cell, have been set up ay district level as well as constituency level. To check paid news in newspapers, a district level MCMC committee has also been set up.He directed the owners of printing presses to ensure that at the time of printing any election material, name of publisher, name of person who gets it printed, quantity etc should be mentioned on the material without fail. He said that if they fail to comply with these directions, then action under section 127 A(2) of RP Act 1951, would be taken against them.He also appealed to the public to exercise their right to vote in a free and fair manner without any fear. He also appealed to the political parties and prospective candidates to not use election material made of plastic.