413 candidates to contest for 85 MC wards

Tribune News Service

Amritsar December 9

After the withdrawal of nominations, 413 candidates are left in the field to contest the MC elections. As many as 169 persons, who had earlier filed the nominations, withdrew their nomination yesterday. Out of 609 aspirants, 27 nominations were rejected by the administration a day before yesterday while scrutinising the documents.

In the final list of 413 candidates, 85 candidates are contesting on the Congress ticket while 50 are contesting on the BJP ticket. As per the seat-sharing understanding of the SAD-BJP alliance, the SAD is contesting on 36 seats.

The Aam Adami Party will be contesting on 62 seats only. The party failed to find suitable candidates on several seats.

The candidates of the Apna Punjab Party will be contesting from nine wards. The CPI has fielded eight candidates while the CPI (Marxist) will be contesting from three sets. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) is not contesting any of the seats. As many as 156 candidates are Independent.

There are 11 candidates, including six independents, who are contesting from Ward No. 56. It is the highest number of candidates from any ward. Most of the wards have four to six candidates. Meanwhile, from Ward Nos. 17, 21, 24, 29, 44, 51 and 73, only two candidates are contesting. There are seven Independent candidates who will be contesting from Ward No. 40.

With the release of the final list, the candidates have started their campaigning. It will continue till December 16 evening, a day before the elections.