Punjab 19 pc polling recorded till 12 noon in zila parishad panchayat samiti elections

    Chandigarh, Dec 14 (PTI) A voter turnout of 19 per cent was witnessed till 12 noon in the zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections in Punjab on Sunday, officials said.
    The polling began at 8 am amid tight security arrangements and is slated to continue till 4 pm. The counting of votes will take place on December 17.
    Elections are being held to elect members of 347 zones of 22 zila parishads and 2,838 zones of 153 panchayat samitis. Over 9,000 candidates are in the fray, and a total of 1.36 crore voters are eligible to cast their ballot.
    Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appealed to voters through X to come out in large numbers to cast their ballot.
    Many voters, particularly the elderly and women, reached several polling stations in the morning to exercise their franchise.
    Several leaders and ministers, including Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema, Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains, Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khuddian, MLAs Kuleep Singh Dhaliwal, Sandeep Jakhar and former minister Surjit Singh Rakhra, cast their votes early.
    Meanwhile, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring alleged that a polling booth was "captured" in Babania village in Gidderbaha assembly in Muktsar district, reportedly at the behest of the local MLA.
    He claimed that polling agents were asked to leave the polling booth by some miscreants and said that he spoke to the Muktsar Senior Superintendent of Police in this matter and filed a complaint with the State Election Commission. "No hooliganism will be tolerated," Warring said.
    In Tarn Taran's Kazi Kot village, workers of the Aam Aadmi Party and Shiromani Akali Dal came face to face and pelted stones at each other. In Ferozepur's Betu Kadim village, two groups threw stones at each other.
    Polling was suspended in Varpal and Khasa villages in Amritsar district after a printing error was detected in ballot papers, officials said.
    In five villages under Patiala's Samana constituency -- Kotli, Bhedpuri, Dodhra, Sehajpur Kalan and Sehajpur Khurd -- villagers boycotted polling, protesting their inclusion in the Patran block instead of Samana. According to villagers, not a single vote was cast in these villages till 12 noon.
    Locals said the decision to shift their villages from Samana to Patran was unacceptable, as Samana town is geographically closer, while Patran is nearly 30 kilometres away, making access to routine services difficult.
    The SAD wrote to the State Election Commission, alleging that an AAP candidate in Fatehgarh Sahib had posted photographs of ballot papers on social media around 10 hours before the commencement of polling.
    These photographs clearly show ballot papers bearing printed serial numbers, the party claimed, adding that it constituted a violation of the model code of conduct. SAD leader Arshdeep Singh Kler demanded a thorough and independent inquiry into how the candidate gained access to ballot papers prior to polling.
    Officials said that 18,224 polling stations have been set up, covering all rural areas of the districts. There are 860 hyper-sensitive and 3,405 sensitive polling locations, they said.
    Around 44,000 police personnel have been deployed under the supervision of gazetted rank officers to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in the state.
    The State Election Commission, Punjab, has appointed election observers and police observers and asserted that it is fully committed to conducting these general elections fairly and transparently.
    Candidates of all major political parties -- the Aam Aadmi Party, Congress, Shiromani Akali Dal and the BJP -- are contesting the zila parishad and panchayat samiti polls on party symbols.
    During poll campaigning, the ruling Aam Aadmi Party sought votes based on the works undertaken by the Bhagwant Mann government.
    In the run-up to the polls, the opposition parties targeted the Mann government, accusing it of using the government machinery to prevent their candidates from filing nomination papers and getting those rejected.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)