Punjab: Local bodies poll to be held in January

Tribune News Service

Sanjeev Singh Bariana

Chandigarh, November 19

Elections to at least five Municipal Corporations and 41 municipal councils will be held in the first fortnight of January 2024.

Groundwork complete

All the groundwork is complete for the local bodies poll. The model code of conduct will come into force by December 15. Sources in CMO

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Five MCs

The term of Amritsar and Patiala MCs had ended on January 22, Jalandhar on January 24 and Ludhiana on March 26. The tenure of Phagwara MC had ended in March 2020

Highly-placed sources in the Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s office said, “All the groundwork is complete for the local bodies poll. The model code of conduct will come into force by December 15.”

Earlier, the Secretary, Local Government, had issued a notification that elections to five Municipal Corporations, including Amritsar, Patiala, Phagwara, Jalandhar and Ludhiana will be held in the “first fortnight of November”.

The term of Amritsar and Patiala MCs had ended on January 22, Jalandhar on January 24 and Ludhiana on March 26. The tenure of Phagwara MC had ended in March 2020.

The notification came after the Punjab and Haryana High Court in March had asked the State Election Commission to conduct the poll. The Election Commission had committed that the final publication of electoral rolls would be completed by November 10.

Sources said the work related to delimitation of wards in the local bodies was complete. They said preparations were underway to conduct the panchayat poll in the third week of January. Even block samiti and zila parishad elections are also expected to be conducted on the same day.

The CM is learnt to have expressed his intention that all elections should be held within a limited time frame.

Earlier, the government had decided that panchayat elections would be conducted in two phases. Even delimitation exercise in panchayats was underway.

Moreover, January being less hectic for farmers, it’s the most ideal month to conduct the poll. The state has around 13,240 panchayats, 150 block samitis and 22 zila parishads.

These elections would be a litmus test for the Aam Aadmi Party government’s which came to power with a massive mandate in March 2022.

The Opposition has been stating that the AAP government was trying to delay the poll as it was not sure about its hold over the voters anymore.