Nearly 28.50 lakh voters would exercise their franchise to elect the members of 122 Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats on Wednesday. Besides, one ward of Bariwala Nagar Panchayat would also go for poll. The counting of votes would start on the same polling booth immediately after the completion of polling.
The elections is being seen as a litmus test for both the ruling alliance partners — the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — who are trying their luck sans each other from several areas including Tarn Taran.
Congress, attribute it to their tough luck or indifference, is considered to be totally out of competition. The Aam Aadmi Party, despite doing well in the Delhi state assembly polls, decided to stay away from the civic body polls in Punjab. But, making this little worse for the SAD and the BJP is the presence of independents who are giving strong competition to its candidates.
The State Election Commissioner Shivinder Singh Brar on Tuesday maintained that all arrangement for the polling has been completed. “The State Election Commission, District and local Administration have completed all arrangements for smooth conduction of election,” he said.
Brar said that for the election in 2062 wards of Municipal Councils or Nagar Panchayat, total 1,486 polling stations and 3,170 polling booths have been set up. “In these elections, 7,006 candidates are in fray whereas 160 candidates have already been elected unopposed…Approximately, 28.50 lakh voters would cast their votes in these elections,” he said.
He said that in these elections, 16,717 employees, apart from the reserved force, have been deployed on election duty. “The election staff has already reached at their respective booths with the election material,” he said.
“For security purpose, 15,689 police personnel have been deployed on election duty,” he added. He said that 163 polling booths have been declared hypersensitive whereas 940 polling booths have been put in sensitive category.
Keeping in view the sensitivity of situation, the State Election Commission has appointed two senior police officers from Punjab Police Headquarters as “Police Observers” in Tarn Tarn and Ferozepur for the elections.
The state Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Crime, Nilabh Kishore and DIG, Administration, Shive Kumar Verma — both IPS officers — have been appointed police observer for Tarn Taran and Ferozepur respectively. These police officers have been instructed to immediately leave for their place of duty, said the Commission spokesperson.