Polling for gram panchayats underway in Punjab amid tight security

Polling for gram panchayats in Punjab was underway amid tight security arrangements on Tuesday, officials said here.

They said voting for the posts of 'sarpanch' and 'panch' through ballot boxes began at 8 am and would continue till 4 pm.

After the polling, the votes will be counted at the polling stations, the officials said.

There are 19,110 polling booths, 1,187 of them marked as hyper-sensitive, for the election. There are 13,225 gram panchayats in the state.

According to an official, 9,398 gram panchayats will elect 'sarpanch'.

The officials said 3,798 candidates for the post of 'Sarpanch' have already been elected unopposed.

Elderly people, women and youth were seen standing in queues outside many polling booths in the morning.

The elections are being held without symbols of political parties as a consequence of the Punjab Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2024, passed last month by the Vidhan Sabha.

There are a total of 1.33 crore registered voters for this election.

There are 25,588 candidates for the posts of 'sarpanch' and 80,598 candidates are in the fray for 'panch' posts, the officials said.

Around 96,000 personnel have been deputed on election duty.

On Monday, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appealed to the people to exercise their franchise freely and fairly.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday dismissed a bunch of petitions filed against the panchayat polls on several grounds, which included a challenge to ward demarcation, delimitation, grievances about poll symbols, extension of time for nominations, and rejection of nomination papers.