Polling for zila parishad, panchayat samiti underway in Punjab

Chandigarh, Dec 14 (PTI) Polling for the zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections in Punjab began at 8 am on Sunday amid tight security arrangements, said officials.

Elections are being held to elect members of 347 zones of 22 zila parishads and 2,838 zones of 153 panchayat samitis. Over 9,000 candidates are in the fray.

A total of 1.36 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballot with the polling continuing till 4 pm. The counting of votes will take place on December 17.

Officials said that 18,224 polling stations have been set up, covering all rural areas of the districts. There are 860 hyper-sensitive and 3,405 sensitive polling locations, they said.

Around 44,000 police personnel have been deployed under the supervision of gazetted rank officers to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in the state.

The State Election Commission, Punjab, has appointed election observers and police observers and asserted that it is fully committed to conducting these general elections in a fair and transparent manner.

Candidates of all major political parties -- the Aam Aadmi Party, Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP -- are contesting the zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls on party symbols.

During poll campaigning, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party sought votes based on the works undertaken by the Bhagwant Mann government.

In the run-up to the polls, the opposition parties targeted the Mann government, accusing it of using the government machinery to prevent their candidates from filing nomination papers and getting those rejected. PTI CHS NSD NSD