Brisk polling in Punjab, Uttarakhand

New Delhi, Jan 30 (PTI) Brisk polling was today witnessed in the elections to the legislative assemblies in the northern Indian states of Punjab and Uttarakhand that were by and large peaceful. While Punjab registered voting at around 65 per cent, polling in Uttarakhand was put at nearly 70 per cent, officials quoting initial reports from various constituencies in the two states said. The key elections in Punjab and Uttarakhand, which were being ruled by the National Democratic Alliance governments led by Bhartiya Janata Party, will decide the fate of 1,866 candidates including chief ministerial aspirants Prakash Badal and Amarinder Singh in Punjab and B C Khanduri in Uttarakhand. While there are 1,078 contestant vying for 117 seats in Punjab, the number of candidates for the 70 seats in Uttarakhand is 866. Counting of votes will take place on March 6. In Punjab with a 17 million electorate, polling took place at 19,841 polling stations while in Uttarakhand with an electorate of 6.3 million, it was spread over 9,806 booths. In the 2007 polls, the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP alliance came to power with SAD winning 49 and BJP 19. Congress had got 44 seats and remaining five seats went to the Independents. In the outgoing state assembly in Uttarakhand, the BJP had a strength of 36 members followed by Congress with 20, BSP with 8 and UKD with 3 while there were three independents. PTI