Chandigarh, May 26
Polling for elections to 103 municipal bodies in Punjab began on Tuesday, with voting taking place across eight municipal corporations, 75 municipal councils and 20 Nagar Panchayats. The civic polls are being seen as politically significant ahead of the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections.
A major disturbance was reported during polling in Ward No. 10 of Samana, where heavy chaos broke out during the election process. An alleged attempt was made to capture the polling booth, following which senior officials reached the spot and voting was resumed under tight security. Members of the media also allegedly faced misbehaviour from workers of a political party during the incident. It was further alleged that the mobile phone of a local reporter was also snatched, and the matter was brought to the attention of the DSP Samana.
Voting through ballot papers started at 8am and will continue till 5pm, while counting of votes will take place on May 29. Polling is being held in 1,896 wards, including municipal corporations in Mohali, Bathinda, Abohar, Barnala, Kapurthala, Moga, Batala and Pathankot.
A total of 7,555 candidates are contesting the elections. The ruling AAP has fielded 1,801 candidates, followed by Congress with 1,550, BJP with 1,316, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) with 1,251 and BSP with 96 candidates. Besides these, 1,528 Independent candidates are also in the fray. Punjab has over 35 lakh registered voters for the civic polls. Authorities have identified 740 polling booths as sensitive and 275 as hyper-sensitive, with around 35,000 election personnel and 32,000 police personnel deployed across the state.
Voters were seen standing in queues at several polling booths in the morning. BJP leader Ashwani Sharma cast his vote in Pathankot, while AAP MLA Amansher Singh Sherry Kalsi voted in Batala.
The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea challenging the Punjab State Election Commission’s decision to conduct the polls through ballot papers.
The Punjab government declared a public holiday on May 26 to encourage maximum voter participation.
With PTI inputs
