Chandigarh, Aug 3 : Voting has begun for three assembly seats of Punjab - Banur, Kahnuwan and Jalalabad.

The polling will be held till 5:00 p. m.

The polling will decide the fate of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal, who is contesting from Jalalabad seat.

A total of 21 candidates are contesting the by-polls. The main contenders are from the SAD and the Congress.

Around 1500 paramilitary personnel have been pressed into service to avoid any kind of untoward incident.

Special security arrangements have been made at the sensitive and super sensitive polling stations.

While Banur has 92 hyper-sensitive booths, Jalalabad and Kahnuwan have 161 and 36 such booths.

The by-polls for Kahnuwan and Jalalabad was necessitated after MLA Partap Singh Bajwa (Congress) and MLA Sher Singh Ghubaiya (SAD) was elected to the Lok Sabha respectively.

The by-polls for Banur was necessitated after its representative and Cooperation Minister Kanwaljit Singh was killed in a road accident. (ANI)