Campaigning for high-stakes local body polls comes to end
CHANDIGARH/BATHINDA/AMRITSAR/JALANDHAR/KHANNA/
JAGRAON: The campaigning for the civic body elections scheduled to be held on February 14 in Punjab ended on Friday. Eight municipal corporations, 109 municipal councils and nagar panchayats will go to the polls on Sunday with 9,222 candidates in the fray, state election commission officials said.
The election campaign came to an end at 5pm. The required election material and EVMS will be handed over to polling parties on February 13 while voting will take place on February 14 from 8am to 4pm, the officials said, adding that the counting will take place on February 17.
This is the first election in which the SAD and the BJP will be contesting separately after the Akalis snapped ties with the saffron outfit over the farm laws last year.
There are 2,302 wards where the polling will take place in 4,102 booths. Out of that 1,708 booths have been declared sensitive and 861 are hypersensitive. Bathinda district has highest number of 286 sensitive and hyper-sensitive booths followed by Mohali where the total number is 260.
Around 7,000 electronic voting machines and 18,000 personals have been deployed for polling. For the first time, 50% of seats have been reserved for women. There are a total of 20,49,777 males voters, 18,65,354 female and 149 transgender.
Parties bank on personal contacts in Bathinda
On the last day of canvassing in Bathinda, leaders of various political parties organised public rallies and banked on an intensified personal contact activities with electors.
AAP organised ‘jago’, a traditional celebratory procession, to connect with electors. Punjab finance minister Manpreet Singh Badal addressed Congress supporters at Parasram Nagar locality in the city.
Senior SAD leader Sarup Chand Singla led campaigning for the party candidates in his home town. Banking on their traditional vote bank among the urban population, the BJP candidates continued to maintain electioneering a low-profile event in the city.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA from Gidderbaha Amrinder Singh Raja Warring held several ‘nukkar’ rallies.
Door-to-door campaigning in Amritsar
In Amritsar district, 223 candidates are contesting elections. Most of the candidates resorted to door-to-door campaigning on the last day. MP Gurjit Singh Aujla sought votes for ward number 37 Congress nominee Gagandeep Singh Sehjra.
SAD leaders, including Bikram Singh Majithia, also conducted a rally for its candidate Inderjit Singh Pandori in Ward No 37.
Bhikhiwind tehsildar suspended
The services of Bhikhiwind tehsildar were placed under suspension with immediate effect as he was absent during election duty.
3 BJP candidates withdraw in Tanda
Three BJP candidates in Tanda, Hoshiarpur, resigned from the party and withdrew from the elections allegedly due to pressure of some farmer sympathisers.
BJP struggles to get noticed in Khanna
Contesting candidates and workers of the BJP struggled to make a mark in the respective wards with protests and hooting outside party offices at various places, locking gates by residents on spotting BJP flags during doorto-door campaigning and minor incidents of brawls being reported from across districts on Friday. While the BJP termed the incidents as ‘murder of democracy’ and accused the rival parties of curbing their campaign trail, the Congress, SAD and AAP workers stated that it’s the farmers who are protesting against the BJP and the party workers do not have any role to play in the incidents.
In Khanna, the largest municipal council in Ludhiana district with 33 wards, the BJP offices wore a deserted look even as both the SAD and the Congress workers were seen dancing to the beats of ‘dhols’.
Candidates in the Jagraon municipal elections were seen carrying flags of farmer unions while campaigning making their last attempt to woo voters. While the BJP has been facing the farmers’ wrath, other parties and independent candidates have been trying to take advantage of the situation.