The counting of votes to the Punjab Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samitis will be taking place today. The election was held in the state on 19 September 2018. The election was held for the Punjab Panchayat Samiti on Wednesday amid some reports of violence. Today, 354 Punjab Zilla Parishad and 2,900 Panchayat Samiti members will be elected through polling.
There are 22 Zila Parishad and 150 Panchayat Samitis in Punjab. While thirty-three candidates were already declared winner unopposed to several Zila Parishad and 369 nominees were elected unopposed to the Panchayat Samitis.
According to the report, a total of 1,27,87,395 registered voters in Punjab, comprising 60,99,053 women and 97 third-gender voters.
Earlier, opposition party Shuromani Akali Dal (SAD) accused the ruling party of electoral fraud. Ex-chief minister Parkash Singh Badal at Muktsar claimed a large number of Congress workers, brandishing swords, were involved in booth capturing. He also accused the police of not performing its duty and playing its role as a mute spectator.
There were several clashes reported during the polling in Amritsar, Jhoke Harihar in Ferozepur, Lodhi Gujjar in Ajnala and Sohia Kalan in Majitha. They were also reported to have pelted stones at each other.
A total of 17,268 polling booths were set up, 35 observers appointed and around 50,000 police personnel were deployed for the polls in Punjab.
The opposition parties on Tuesday, expressed fear of ‘large-scale booth capturing’. They had claimed the ruling party wanted to win the polls ‘by hook or by crook’.
As Congress touted favourite to win the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samitis after a gap of 10 years, the main contest will be between the ruling party and the SAD-BJP alliance. It’s four members have won Zila Parishads seats unopposed in Fatehgarh Sahib. The final result will be announced after 10 rounds of counting.
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