Punjab Zila Parishads and Panchayat Samiti elections 2018 Live Updates: Voting underway

Chandigarh: Voting for Punjab Zila Parishads and Panchayat Samiti elections is currently underway in 17,268 polling booths across the state on Wednesday. The polling will continue till 4 pm.

The counting of votes will take place on Saturday, September 22.

There are a total of 22 Zila Parishads and 150 Panchayat Samitis in Punjab. Nearly 354 Zila Parishad members and 2,900 Panchayat Samitis members will be elected by 1,27,87,395 registered voters – including 60,99,053 woman and 97 third gender. 

Top parties contesting the poll are the ruling Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and the Akali Dal-BJP alliance.

Tight security arrangements have been made for the day. Nearly 50,000 Punjab police personnel and 86,340 poll personnel have been deployed.

Here are the live updates from Punjab rural polls 2018:

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Punjab: Voting for 22 zila parishads and 150 panchayat samitis polls begins; voters form a queue outside a polling booth in Amritsar's Chaugain pic.twitter.com/u6nMgVSEDG — ANI (@ANI) September 19, 2018

* Polling underway for 22 zila parishads and 150 panchayat samitis in Punjab.

Punjab: Voting for 22 zila parishads and 150 panchayat samitis polls begins; voters form a queue outside a polling booth in Amritsar's Chaugain pic.twitter.com/u6nMgVSEDG — ANI (@ANI) September 19, 2018

*With Congress confident of victory on the back of fulfillment of poll promises -- debt waiver and good governance, Akali Dal, BJP and AAP have targeted the state government for not honouring promises such as smart phones for youths, raising shagun scheme amount, among others.

*A few clashes were reported between the Akalis and Congress workers during filing of nominations.

*Opposition has accused the state election commission of acting at the behest of the state government.