Chandigarh: Voting for 115 ofthe 117 assembly seats in Punjab beganTuetoday (Feb 13, 2007) even as it rained in several parts of the state.

The voting process began at 8 a.m. with voters remainingmostly indoors due to the cold weather conditions that have prevailed over mostparts of north Indiaover the last four days.

However, in some of the 16,751 polling stations, voters didturn up even before 8 a.m.

Rain and drizzle were reported from most parts of the stateearly Tuesday and the sky was overcast.

Voting for the Amritsar Lok Sabha by-election also startedsimultaneously. The fate of cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu andPunjab Finance Minister Surinder Singla rests on this seat.

A fierce contest is expected between the ruling Congress ledby Amarinder Singh and the main opposition Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) alliance.

There are over 1,050 candidates in the fray and 64,000security personnel have been put on election duty.

Voting for the Valtoha assembly seat will take place Feb 24and Beas seat March 11.

The fate of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh (Patiala), Deputy ChiefMinister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (Lehra), Akali Dal president Parkash Singh Badal(Lambi) and former Shiromani Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) presidentJagir Kaur (Bholath) will be decided Tuesday by over 16.9 million voters.