Punjab local boy polls today: 19k cops on duty, 20% booths hypersensitive, over 41% sensitive

Malwa in Punjab again seems to be the most sensitive area as the maximum sensitive booths are in Mohali which are 216 followed by Bathinda which is 209.

In a high-stakes political contest, 117 urban local bodies (ULBs) in Punjab will go to polls on Sunday. There are 2,215 wards and bypoll is happening in four other wards too.

There will be a total of 4,102 booths for all these wards and 861 out of these (20.9%) are hypersensitive, while 1,708 are sensitive (41.6%).

If sensitive and hypersensitive booths are counted together, it comes to 62.4 per cent of the total booths. Already much before the polls, violence has happened in Jalalabad and Moga. While SAD has boycotted elections in Gidderbaha, in Zira, no political party other than Congress has filed nominations on all the 17 seats of Zira Municipal Council.

Malwa in Punjab again seems to be the most sensitive area as the maximum sensitive booths are in Mohali which are 216 followed by Bathinda which is 209.

Not only this, the maximum hypersensitive booths are also in Malwa as Mansa has the highest number of such booths which are 111 followed by CM’s home district Patiala which has 86 hypersensitive booths.

In fact, 675 out of total 861 hypersensitive booths, which comes to 78%, are in Malwa, while 1,229 (71.9%) sensitive booths out of 1,708 are also in the same region that has 13 districts.

Meanwhile it needs to be mentioned that in the polls, 8 municipal corporations and 109 municipal councils/nagar panchayats will be going for polls on Sunday out of which a total of 39,15,280 voters have been registered. Out of these, 20,49,777 are males while 18,65,354 are female voters, while 149 transgenders are also registered .

A total of 20,510 employees have been deputed on poll duties and 7,000 EVMs have been arranged for voting purposes. Counting will be held on February 17.

The bypoll is happening in ward number 37 of Amritsar Municipal Corporation, two wards in Hoshiarpur and one ward of Mullanpur Dakha in Ludhiana district.

Maximum booths are in Mohali district (516) followed by Fazilka (377). Sangrur has 266 booths followed by Ludhiana where 258 booths are existing for Municipal Council Polls in Khanna., Samrala, Jagraon, Raikot, Doraha and Payal.

A total of 19,000 cops have been deployed for conducting the election. However, SAD chief had demanded to depute paramilitary forces looking at the violence cases much before poll date.

Last Municipal polls were held in 2015 in 123 ULBs when SAD and BJP had fought in alliance. The alliance had won the polls by winning in 4 out of 6 municipal corporations.

In Doaba region — Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr and Kapurthala districts, 360 wards will see polling.

At 142, Hoshiarpur has the maximum wards in Hoshiarpur district including 50 wards of corporation and remaining of nine Municipal Committees and NPs.
Hoshiarpur DEO-cum-DC Apneet Riyait said that elections would be held for Municipal Corporation Hoshiarpur, Nagar Councils Mukerian, Dasuya, Gardhiwala, Haryana, Sham Chaurasi, Urmur, Garhshankar besides Nagar Panchayats Mahilpur and Talwara on 142 wards for which total 2,22,647 voters are eligible for the voting.
Total 509 booths have been made in Doaba for which polling parties have been dispatched along with the EVMs and other election material.

In Jalandhar, elections on 109 out of 110 wards of eight Municipal Councils and NPs are taking place. The Municipal Councils include Kartarpur, Phillaur, Nakodar, Nurmala, Alwawalpur and Adampur, while elections for Mehatpur and Lohian Khas Nagar Panchayats are also being held. In Kartarpur, one candidate won unopposed.

Out of 125 booths in Jalandhar,116 are sensitive, 6 are hyper sensitive and 3 are normal with total 1.15 lakh voters.
A total of 82,091 voters are there including 69,327 voters under corporation and 12,764 voters under Municipal Council, Sultanpur Lodhi.

In Kapurthala district, election will be held on 62 wards including 49 wards of the corporation and 13 of Sultanpur Lodhi Nagar Council. Ward no 8 at Kapurthala MC witnessed election of a candidate unopposed.

Nawanshahr will see polling in 47 wards including 19 of Nawanshahr Municipal Council and 15 and 13 of Banga and Rahon Nagar Panchayats, respectively.

In Nawanshahr, there are over 50,000 voters who can exercise their right to vote.

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