Punjab elections 2022: Conjoined twins cast two votes, given goggles to keep secrecy

Voting for 117 Assembly seats in Punjab is currently underway.

Conjoined twins Sohna and Mohna show their ink marked fingers after voting at a polling station near Amritsar (PTI Photo)

New Delhi: Voting for 117 Assembly seats in Punjab began on Sunday (February 20, 2022) morning amid tight security arrangements. Polling started at 8 am and will continue till 6 pm.

As many as 2,14,99,804 voters, including 1,02,00,996 women are eligible to cast votes at about 24,740 polling stations in the single-phase elections. 

A total of 1,304 candidates, including 93 women and two transgenders, are in the fray for the high-stake electoral contest.

Meanwhile, pictures and videos have started surfacing on social media platforms of people exercising their franchise.

One such picture of conjoined twins voting at a polling booth is now going viral.

Sohna and Mohna cast their votes in the Manwal area of the Amritsar district and both of them will be counted as separate voters. 

Returning Officer (RO) also provided them with goggles so that the secrecy of their vote is maintained. 

"It is a very unique case. They are icons of Persons with Disabilities voters," an official told ANI. 

It is a very unique case. EC told us to do proper videography. They're icons of PWD voters. They're conjoined but two separate voters. Arrangements were made by the RO of giving them goggles so that secrecy of voting is maintained: Gaurav Kumar, PRO#PunjabElections pic.twitter.com/8G8onA9RKE — ANI (@ANI) February 20, 2022

Sohan Singh and Mohan Singh, fondly known as Sohna-Mohna, turned 18 in 2021. Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) S Karuna Raju had handed over two separate electoral photo identity cards (EPIC) to both of them to mark the 12th National Voters` Day on January 25.

Born on June 13, 2003, in Delhi, they were reportedly abandoned by their parents and adopted by an orphanage in Amritsar.

Punjab is witnessing a multi-corner contest this time with Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Shiromani Akali Dal-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance, and the coalition of Bharatiya Janata Party-former chief minister Amarinder Singh`s Punjab Lok Congress party as key players.

The counting of votes will take place on March 10.