Punjab zila parishad, panchayat samiti polls today, over 9K in fray

Punjab is all set to witness one of the most keenly fought rural body elections on Sunday, with the ruling AAP, Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and BJP giving it their all to secure a win at the hustings. Over 9,000 candidates, including Independents, are contesting the elections.

Barring Mohali, voting to elect 347 zila parishad members from 22 districts and 2,838 members for 153 panchayat samitis is to be held.

With the Vidhan Sabha elections just 14 months away, the elections are being held in a politically charged atmosphere. Each party that has thrown its hat in the electoral arena is fighting to set the stage for the next Assembly polls. As many as 1,280 candidates will be vying with each other for the zila parishad election and 8,495 for the panchayat samiti poll.

The elections are not just a test case for the ruling AAP after being in power for nearly four years now, but importantly the poll result will determine the political future of the Akali Dal and the BJP as it will set the stage for their future — either in an alliance or independently. For the Congress, the elections are important because in spite of recent controversies and infighting, the party will also know how the public judges them.

Top guns of all parties have been aggressively campaigning for their supporters who are contesting the elections. Today, AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal and other national leaders held a video conference with party leaders here to discuss the strategy and importance of winning the elections. All top Congress leaders have been busy strategising in their respective constituencies, as have been the BJP leaders, who are gauging their reach among the rural voters. SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, his MP wife Harsimrat Kaur Badal and their son too have been campaigning hard, trying to regain their lost political ground among rural voters.

The campaigning, which ended yesterday, may not be as loud or boisterous as in the Assembly elections, but the strategising and manoeuvring by the parties have been just as intense. This is because each party knows that a win at the hustings here lays the foundation of their cadres, which could help them sail through in the next Assembly polls.

Little wonder then that the ruling party and the State Election Commission (SEC) has remained under Opposition fire all through the campaigning over the alleged breakdown of democratic norms, including misuse of official machinery. There were allegations about Opposition candidates not being allowed to file nomination papers and a purported audio clip of police officers discussing how to help ruling party MLAs, which led to the Punjab and Haryana Court pulling up the SEC. Later, the SEC issued strict guidelines to all DCs and SSPs, asking them to ensure that elections were free and fair.

The elections were last time held in 2018. These were to be held in May this year but were postponed.