Polls being held in three municipal corporation – Amritsar, Jalandhar & Patiala and 29 municipal councils and Nagar Panchayats. The results will be declared on Sunday evening. The election for the municipal corporation of Punjab’s largest city, Ludhiana, are not being held as the electoral rolls were not updated.
A total of 8,000 election staff and 15,500 police personnel have been assigned for poll duty. The Akali Dal-BJP and AAP had accused the Congress of misusing its power in the run-up to the municipal polls.
Here are the live updates:
12:11 pm: 29.79% voter turnout till 12 pm has been recorded in the Jalandhar municipal elections.
12:05 pm: Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu and his wife Navjot Kaur Sidhu cast their votes at Ward No 9’s polling station 5 in Amritsar
11:33 am: 10.43 % polling till 10 am in Jalandhar.
10:20 am: Police have deployed 6,800 personnel in Amritsar and Jalandhar. In Amritsar, 4,000 police personnel will be deployed and the administration has set up 748 polling booths at 365 polling stations.
10:11am: As many as 118 polling stations have been declared hyper-sensitive, 155 sensitive and 92 non-sensitive.
9:45 am: 12% polling till 10 am in Patiala.
9:15 am: 9% polling till 10 am in Amritsar.
8:45 am: The voting will continue till 4 pm. The main contest is among the ruling Congress, main opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Aam Aadmi Party BJP alliance.
8.30 am: Voting for the Punjab municipal elections began at 8am.
Local issues of towns and cities and the respective wards dominated the campaigning for the municipal elections. A total of 413 candidates are in the fray in 85 wards of Amritsar where 769,153 voters will exercise their franchise.
In Jalandhar, 305 candidates are contesting from 80 wards. In Patiala, election will be held in 57 wards in which 260,664 voters can exercise their franchise.
This is the first big election in the state after the Congress government, led by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, came to power after the assembly polls in March. The Congress won 77 out of 117 seats in the assembly. The AAP finished second with 20 seats.
HT
