Congress' Jalandhar candidate appeals to voters to disregard "false propaganda" by AAP, BJP

Jalandhar: Congress' Jalandhar candidate and former Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Saturday appealed to voters to disregard "propaganda" spread by Aam Aadmi Party and BJP with false claims of support of Ravidasi community's Dera Ballan.
"Aam Aadmi Party and BJP are spreading false propaganda. Yesterday BJP posted about Dera Ballan that Dera Ballan supports them, which Dera Ballan has denied and said that if they spread false propaganda like this then they will file an FIR. Dera Ballan has made it clear that they do not support BJP," Channi said.
Dera Sachkhand Ballan is the biggest dera of the Ravidasia/Ad-dharmi community in Punjab.
Further Channi urged the people to not fall for such false propaganda.
"Aam Aadmi Party has started spreading false propaganda about me as well. I want to warn people not to fall for such propaganda," Channi said.
He also expressed confidence in the Congress' prospects for the Lok Sabha elections.
"Wherever I am going, people are congratulating me and we are going to win in large numbers. I thank the people of Jalandhar who have accepted me," Channi said.
AAP's Pawan Kumar Tinu, BJP's Shushil Kumar Rinku, and Congress' Charanjit Singh Channi are the main candidates in the Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency.
The constituency is reserved for the candidates from the Scheduled Castes. In the 2019 election, Congress' Santokh Singh Chaudhary won the constituency with a victory margin of 19,491 votes, securing 3,85,712 votes.
Chaudhary defeated Charanjit Singh Atwal of the SAD, who got 3,66,221 votes. The constituency witnessed a significant voter turnout of 63.05 per cent in 2019.
All 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab went to the polls on Saturday.
In the last phase of the election, voting is being held in 57 parliamentary constituencies across eight states and the Union Territories including Bihar, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal.
The 57 Lok Sabha seats include 41 general category seats, three reserved for Scheduled Tribes, and 13 for Scheduled Castes. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is among the 906 candidates in the fray in this phase, during which 10.06 crore electors are eligible to cast their votes.
Of the seats at stake, the BJP had bagged 25 in 2019, while the Congress won eight, and the Trinamool Congress won nine. The Biju Janata Dal won four seats and the Janata Dal (United) won three; the Bahujan Samajwadi Party, Apna Dal, and Akali Dal won two seats; and the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Aam Aadmi Party each snagged a single seat.
Over the last six phases, voting has been completed in 486 Lok Sabha seats across 28 States and Union Territories. Today, the voting is taking place in the remaining 42 Assembly constituencies of the Odisha State Legislative Assembly. The counting of the votes polled is scheduled to take place on June 4 when the results will be known.