Chandigarh: Conjoined twins Sohna and Mohna cast their first votes on Sunday in Amritsar for the Assembly polls in Punjab as two separate voters, elections officials said.
Sohan Singh and Mohan Singh, fondly known as Sohna-Mohna, turned 18 in 2021. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S. Karuna Raju handed over two separate electoral photo identity cards (EPIC) to both of them to mark the 12th National Voters’ Day on January 25.
Special arrangements were made for Sohna and Mohna so that they could vote separately, while ensuring that their privacy could be maintained, the CEO said.
Born on June 13, 2003, in Delhi, they were abandoned by their parents and adopted by an orphanage in Amritsar.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) had considered Sohna and Mohna as separate voters and decided to give individual voting rights to both of them.
The polling began at 8 a.m. and will continue till 6 p.m. The counting of ballots will take place on March 10.
“As Punjab is going to poll today, practice your constitutional right by casting your valuable vote for a progressive change. Also, urge your family and friends to step out and vote because every single vote counts,” Congress chief ministerial face Charanjit Singh Channi tweeted.
In the polls, 1,304 candidates — 1209 men, 93 women and two transgenders — are in the fray.
In the 2017 Assembly elections, the Congress had won an absolute majority by winning 77 seats in the 117-member Punjab Assembly and ousted the SAD-BJP government after 10 years.
The AAP had emerged as the second-largest party, winning 20 seats. Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) won 15 seats, while the BJP, which had a coalition government with the Akali Dal in Punjab from 2007 to 2017, secured three seats.
–IANS