Punjab civic polls: AAP demands CM Amarinder Singh's resignation amid skirmishes

Alleging Congress manipulation, AAP MLA Bhagwant Mann on Sunday has said that it was 'deadly for democracy', amid civic polls underway in Punjab. Going a step further, Punjab MLA Harpal Cheema alleged that poll-violence 'proved' CM Amarinder Singh was a 'killer democracy', demanding his resignation. Currently, 9,222 candidates are in the fray for elections to 2,302 wards of the eight municipal corporations of Abohar, Bathinda Batala, Kapurthala, Mohali, Hoshiarpur, Pathankot and Moga and 109 municipal councils and Nagar panchayats in the state.

37 pc polling till 12 noon for civic body elections in Punjab

AAP demands Punjab CM's resignation

Punjab civic polls: Voting underway; police on high alert after reports of possible threat

Poll clashes in Punjab

There were some reports of minor skirmishes and heated exchanges between the workers of the ruling Congress and the opposition parties at some places, including Jagraon, Batala, Rupnagar, Rajpura, Tarn Taran and Bathinda. Moreover, AAP members staged a dharna in the Samana and Patti area against the alleged "high-handedness" of Congress. Similarly,  seven people have been injured in Ward No 1 of Ropar Municipal Council in a clash between Congress and SAD workers, state reports. Talking to the media in Majitha, Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia accused the Congress of misusing the government machinery to win the urban local bodies polls in Punjab.

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Punjab was put on high alert with as many as 19,000 police personnel deputed to conduct free and fair elections. Voters were also screened through thermal scanners at polling booths in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are 20,49,777 male,18,65,354 female and 149 transgender voters, totalling 39,15,280 registered voters in the state for the civic body elections, the EC spokesperson said.

Around 37 per cent polling was registered till 12 noon on Sunday for the civic body elections in Punjab, officials said. The voting began at 8 am and it will continue till 4 pm, they said. The State Election Commission (SEC) has set up 4,102 polling stations, of which, 1,708 have been declared as sensitive and 861 as hypersensitive.  A voter who enters the polling station before 4 pm will have the right to vote, an SEC spokesperson said. Around 7,000 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) have been deployed for voting. The counting of votes will take place on February 17.

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