Buoyant by its victory in recently-held Gurdaspur lok Sabha bypolls, the ruling Congress party is now looking at the civic body polls, to be held on December 17.
The State election commission on Thursday declared the elections to three Municipal Corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala along with 32 nagar panchayats and councils in the State.
Even as the elections to ludhiana Municipal Corporation was also due to be held, the Commission stated that the State Government would take a call on the dates for the same.
The elections, to be conducted on electronic voting machines (EVMs) this time, will be held in 60 wards in Patiala, 80 wards in Jalandhar and 85 wards in Amritsar, and the result for them will be declared on the same day.
For the first time, the voters would have the option of pressing the NOTA (none of the above) button in the civic body polls.
With the announcement of polls, for which the notification will be issued on December 2, the code of conduct has come into force “immediately” in the areas falling within the jurisdiction of concerned corporations and nagar councils or nagar panchayats, and would be in force till the completion of the electoral process.
Announcing the elections, the State Election Commissioner Jagpal Singh Sandhu said that the elections will be conducted with 50 per cent reservation for women — the decision which has been recently taken by the state government.
Sandhu said that the list of reserved wards has already been circulated, and the reservation list for wards for women will have a separate list of reservation based on the specified criteria like caste.
For the purpose of elections, as many as 3200 polling stations have been set up and around 4000 EVMs will be used. For the polling process, six returning officers will be appointed for Patiala corporation election, seven for Jalandhar and eight for Amritsar.
The state DGP VK Bhawra has been made the in-charge of security arrangements for the elections.
“A total of 26 observers have been appointed for the purpose of looking into the grievances of the people and ensuring the peaceful conduct of the polls,” he said.
Announcing the schedule, Sandhu said that the filing of nominations will begin from December 2 till December 6, and the nominations will be scrutinized on December 7, and the list of candidates will be finalized on December 8 after withdrawal of nominations on the same day. The elections symbols will also be allotted to the candidates on December 8.
The election process will be completed by December 20, he added.
Sandhu informed that the election expenditure of candidates for municipal corporations has been increased from Rs 2.07 lakh to Rs 2.50 lakh.
“For the Class I municipal councils, the expenditure has been increased from Rs 1.84 lakh to Rs 2.25 lakh. For Class II, it has been raised from Rs 1.15 lakh to Rs 1.40 lakh and for Class III, it is Rs 1.20 lakh as compared to previous figure of Rs 98,000,” he said.
Sandhu said that the election expenditure for nagar panchayats has been increased from Rs 69,000 to Rs 85,000.
The Commissioner further elaborated that for ensuring the appropriate conduct of the polls, 756 polling stations have been set up in Amritsar Municipal Corporation, 563 in Jalandhar and 254 in Patiala.
In Barnala, 13 polling stations have been set up, besides 15 in Bathinda, 19 in Ferozepur, 13 in Fatehgarh Sahib, 13 in Hoshiarpur, 37 in Kapurthala, 70 in ludhiana, 35 in Moga, 13 in Mansa, 11 in Muktsar Sahib, 11 in Pathankot, 52 in Sangrur, and 13 each in Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar and Tarn Taran.