Ludhiana civic polls underway: 10.50 lakh voters to decide fate of 494 candidates

Results will be announced on February 27.

ANI photo

Ludhiana: Voting for Ludhiana Municipal Corporation is currently underway at 95 wards. Nearly 10.50 lakh voters will decide the fate of 494 contesting candidates. The chief contest is between the ruling Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) alliance and the Aam Aadmi Party-Lok Insaf Party (AAP-LIP) alliance.

#Punjab: Voting underway for Ludhiana Municipal Corporation elections in 95 wards. pic.twitter.com/qm676uvPi1 — ANI (@ANI) February 24, 2018

Over 4,500 cops of civil administration have been deployed for the civic polls. About 5,400 employees of civil administration will be on duty during the polls.

By-polls of two wards in Payal and Jagraon Municipal Councils will be held on Sunday.

The counting of votes for Ludhiana, Payal and Jagraon Municipal Councils will be held on Tuesday, February 27.

Meanwhile, dry days will be observed in the Ludhiana, Jagraon, and Payal on the polling day (Saturday) and the counting day (Tuesday).

A total of 284 polling stations out of a total of 1,153 stations have been identified as sensitive where videography would be done.

The 10.50 lakh voters included 5.67 lakh males, 4.82 lakh females, and 23 transgenders.

District Electoral Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Agrawal informed that nine strong rooms would be set up at as many places where the electronic voting machine would be kept until the counting day.

CCTV cameras would be installed for the round-the-clock supervision of the strong rooms. These cameras would be Wi-Fi enabled and any candidate can oversee the strong room by just entering a password which would be issued by the returning officer.

The Punjab Government has declared a holiday on Saturday in all government offices, corporations, boards, and educational institutions in all concerned election areas here.

With agency inputs