All set for multi-cornered MC polls in Punjab

As many as 3,336 candidates are in the fray for the civic polls, said officials, adding that there will be 3,809 polling booths.

With AAP, Congress, BJP and the Shiromani Akali Dal vying to outdo each other, the municipal elections in Punjab are set to witness a multi-cornered contest, the polling for which will take place on Saturday.

Polling staff check election material before leaving for their respective polling station for Election Duty on the eve of Punjab Municipal Corporation Elections in Amritsar on Friday. (Sameer Sehgal/HT)

Polling will be held for five municipal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Phagwara, 44 municipal councils and nagar panchayats from 7 am till 4 pm. Counting will be held on the same day, said officials. Electronic voting machines (EVMs) will be used for the voting, they said.

As many as 3,336 candidates are in the fray for the civic polls, said officials, adding that there will be 3,809 polling booths.

The municipal corporations of Amritsar and Jalandhar have 85 wards each, while Ludhiana, Patiala and Phagwara have 95, 60 and 50 wards, respectively. There are 598 wards of municipal councils and nagar panchayats.

The civic polls will be a litmus test for the ruling AAP, which would want to continue its winning momentum after winning three of the four assembly bypolls in November. The stakes will also be high for the Congress. It had majority in Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala municipal corporations.

The Shiromani Akali Dal is also trying its luck in these polls. The party did not contest the November bypolls to four assembly segments after Sukhbir Singh Badal was declared ‘tankhaiya’ (guilty of religious misconduct) by the Akal Takht for “mistakes” made by the SAD and its government in Punjab from 2007 to 2017.