CHANDIGARH: After winning the Jalandhar Lok Sabha bypoll, the AAP-led Punjab government is contemplating holding the civic body elections soon in five major municipal corporations of Amritsar, Ludhiana, Patiala, Jalandhar and Phagwara besides more than three dozen municipal councils.
In many of these corporations and councils, the delimitation of wards is going on and is likely to be completed soon. Since the power tariff has been hiked from today in the state, this is likely to become one of the major issues in these polls. There are 166 civic bodies in Punjab.
The government has been delaying these elections. Already, the tenure of the Amritsar and Patiala municipal corporations ended on January 22, Jalandhar on January 24 and Ludhiana on January 26. The administrators appointed by the government have been running their day-to-day affairs.
Elections have not been held for the Phagwara municipal corporation which was constituted in 2020. It is learnt that the term of seven municipal councils in the state -- Dera Baba Nanak, Sardoolgarh, Sanaur, Tarn Taran, Nadala, Sangrur and Rampura Phul -- ended between March 3 and 13, 2020, so polls in these places too are pending. Also the terms of 34 other municipal councils and notified area committees ended between December 31 last year to February 14 this year.
Sources said that there are around 166 municipalities in the state whose elections are held by the state election commissioner and before that the ward delimitation and an update of electoral rolls are held under the supervision of the election commissioner.
CM Bhagwant Mann has been a votary of fighting these elections on the party symbol. However, Congress and BJP have a considerable hold in the urban municipalities. Observers believe that the trend is that the ruling party usually wins the civic polls. This trend is likely to continue as the grants are given by
the state government so the people generally vote for the party in power.