Chandigarh, Nov 23 (IANS) Counting of ballots began on Saturday for the bypolls to the four Assembly seats of Punjab that saw 63.91 per cent polling on November 20 with 45 candidates, including three women, in the fray. The stakes are high for three major parties -- the BJP, Congress, and the ruling AAP.

The four Assembly constituencies - Gidderbaha, Barnala, Chabbewal and Dera Baba Nanak - saw high-pitched and aggressive campaigning.

The four seats - three represented by the Congress and one by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) - fell vacant after MLAs from these constituencies were elected in this year’s Lok Sabha polls.

Chief Electoral Officer Sibin C. said one counting centre has been set up in each Assembly constituency. A three-tier security system has been implemented for each counting centre with the deployment of Punjab Police personnel and Central Armed Forces.

He said 11 candidates contested for the Dera Baba Nanak seat that recorded 64.01 per cent voting, while the Chabbewal (reserved) seat had six candidates and saw 53.43 per cent voting.

Likewise, 14 candidates are in the fray in the politically significant seat of Gidderbaha which saw the highest polling of 81.90 per cent. In the Barnala constituency, 14 candidates are in the fray and recorded 56.34 per cent voting.

The Congress has fielded Ludhiana Member of Parliament (MP) Amrinder Singh Raja Warring’s wife Amrita Warring from Gidderbaha, while Gurdaspur MP Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa’s wife Jatinder Kaur from Dera Baba Nanak, Ranjit Kumar from Chabbewal and Kuldeep Singh Dhillon from Barnala.

The fight in Gidderbaha is triangular with BJP candidate Manpreet Singh Badal, a five-time lawmaker and two-time finance minister, posing a challenge to Akali Dal’s turncoat and AAP’s Hardeep Singh Dimpy Dhillon and Congress’ Amrita Warring. The Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) has fielded Sukhraj Singh.

Former Shiromani Akali Dal leader from Gidderbaha, Dhillon, once a close aide of Sukhbir Badal, switched loyalties in August, saying his decision to join the ruling party is in the larger interest of the constituency that is “struggling for development”.

This seat in Muktsar district was once considered a stronghold of the Akalis, with Parkash Singh Badal representing it for five consecutive terms - 1969, 1972, 1977, 1980 and 1985, before he handed over the political baton to his nephew Manpreet Badal in 1995.

In Dera Baba Nanak, besides Congress’ candidate Jatinder Kaur, AAP’s nominee in the fray is Gurdeep Singh Randhawa and BJP’s Ravikaran Singh Kahlon.

From Chabbewal, AAP candidate Ishank Kumar, son of AAP MP Raj Kumar Chabbewal, has been pitted against Congress’ Ranjit Kumar and BJP’s Sohan Singh Thandal, another Akali Dal turncoat who had won this seat in the 2012 Assembly elections but lost in 2017 and 2022.

The legislative Assembly has a strength of 117 members, of which the ruling party AAP has 90 members, while the Opposition Congress has 13 seats, Shiromani Akali Dal three seats, BJP two, BSP one, and Independent candidates three.