Ahead of the Assembly elections next year, the Punjab civic body polls would suggest which way the political wind is blowing. The high decibel campaigning for the polls to be held on February 14 (Sunday), ended on Friday evening with all the political parties
making their last ditch effort to woo the voters.
The last day saw Aam Aadmi Party’s senior leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia campaigning for the party candidates in Amritsar, Punjab Finance Minister Manpreet Badal electioneering for Congress candidates in Bathinda mainly to retain his citadel, Jails Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa and Congress MP and former Minister Manish Tewari seeking votes for party candidates in Mohali along with local MLA and Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, among others.
The State Election Commission has made all necessary arrangements to conduct the polls to elect 400 members for eight municipal corporations, 109 municipal councils, and nagar panchayats out of the total 9,222 candidates in the fray.
“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 8 am to 4 pm,” said the election officials adding that the counting will take place on February 17.
As per the Punjab Government’s instructions, 50 percent reservation has been given for women in municipal elections.
There are 20,49,777 male, 18,65,354 female and 149 transgender voters, totaling 39,15,280 registered voters in Punjab for these elections.
For the purpose of conducting polls, 4,102 polling booths have been established and 18,000 personnel will be put on election duty. Around 7,000 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been arranged for the polling.
For taking preventive measures for COVID-19, Rs 1.65 crore has been allocated to provide masks, sanitizers, and gloves to be used by the staff deployed for election duty.
Besides the ruling Congress in the state, AAP, SAD and the BJP are also contesting these polls.
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.
Ahead of the polls, the Opposition has accused the Congress of “misusing” the government machinery to influence the polls, a charge denied by the ruling party.
A SAD delegation had on Tuesday urged Punjab Governor V P Singh Badnore to direct the state government to countermand the civic body polls at all places where nomination papers of opposition candidates were rejected.
A BJP delegation on Thursday met the governor, urging him to issue directions for the deployment of paramilitary forces in the state in the view of “deteriorating” law and order situation ahead of the polls.
Being held at the time when farmers are agitating against the Centre’s three contentious farm laws since months now, the BJP candidates, along with senior leaders and workers are facing massive protests across the State by the farmers. In fact, several BJP candidates have opted to contest polls as “independents”.
In all, 9,222 candidates are in fray, with 30 percent contesting as ‘independents’. A total of 2,832 independents are in fray on 2215 wards of 117 urban local bodies (ULBs) of Punjab. While the ruling Congress party has fielded 2,037 candidates on the party symbol, AAP has fielded on 1606, becoming the second party with highest number of candidates. SAD has fielded 1569 candidates on the party symbol, with 1,003 by the BJP.
ABSENT FROM ELECTION DUTY: BHIKHIWIND TEHSILDAR SUSPENDED
Punjab State Election Commission on Friday placed under suspension the services of Bhikhiwind Tehsildar has with immediate effect for being absent during the election duty. Commission spokesperson said that Lakhwinder Singh, Tehsildar of Bhikhiwind in Tarn Taran district, deliberately remained absent from the work of municipal elections due to which he had been suspended with immediate effect.
PEOPLE OF PUNJAB SHOULD GIVE AAP A CHANCE TO IMPLEMENT DELHI MODEL: SISODIA
AAP’s senior leader and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday appealed to the people of Punjab to give a chance to the Aam Aadmi Party once and they would forget the politics of Congress, BJP and Akalis.
At Amritsar, he said that Delhi Chief Minister and AAP”s national convener Arvind Kejriwal’s government in Delhi had done such welfare works for the people, which the Congress and the BJP had never imagined.
“Today, the people in Delhi were provided with better health facilities in government hospitals and better education in government schools as compared to the private schools, free electricity and water, 24 hours a day,” he said while appealing to the people to give a chance to AAP once, so that the Delhi model would be implemented in Punjab.
He said that presently, there were two types of politics going on. “One is the politics of Congress, BJP, and Akalis, which are running their businesses and filling their coffers with the tax money paid by the people. On the other hand, it is the politics of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who is spending the taxpayers’ money for people’s development,” he said.
COUNTRY TURN BANKRUPT UNDER MODI GOVT: TEWARI
Addressing Congress party’s massive rally in support of party candidates for Mohali MC elections at Sector 71 Mohali, Congress MP from Sri Anandpur Sahib Manish Tiwari on Friday lambasted the BJP-led Central Government for making the country bankrupt.
“Now there is Rs 18 lakh crore debt on Indian government. The country’s economy that grew at eight prevent every year during Dr Manmohan Singh as PM has now fallen to minus 7.7 percent. Modi Government has dented the country on socially, politically and internationally fronts,” he asserted.
Punjab Cabinet Minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa said that people should not believe in those who shift loyalties for their personal gains. “The expectation of community development cannot be expected from these opportunistic businessmen. These businessmen can’t think of common man’s welfare as they would only think of their own welfare and their businesses. With their money power, they can only try to buy votes to come into power,” he added in a direct attack on former Mayor and also a candidate Kulwant Singh.