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

Elections to five municipal corporations — Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Patiala and Phagwara — and 44 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Punjab will be held on December 21.
Polling will take place from 7 am till 4 pm and counting will be held on the same day at the polling station itself after the completion of polling of votes, 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 a total of 3,809 polling booths.

Municipal corporations of Amritsar and Jalandhar have 85 wards each, while Ludhiana, Patiala and Phagwara have 95, 60 and 50 wards, respectively, where polling will be held. There are 598 wards of municipal councils and nagar panchayats.

The civic polls will be a litmus test for the ruling AAP, which would like to register victories in these elections. It would want to continue its winning momentum in the municipal elections 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 Congress had accused the AAP of “misusing” the state machinery to forcefully stop the opposition candidates from filing the nomination papers for the polls. It had also targeted AAP over the alleged deteriorating law and order issue.

Prestige will also be at stake for the BJP, which is fighting the MC polls solo. The Shiromani Akali Dal is also trying its luck in these polls.

The opposition 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 SAD and its government in Punjab from 2007 to 2017.