On Sunday, voting for eight municipal corporations, and 109 municipal councils and nagar panchayats in Punjab was marred by violence purportedly between the workers of the ruling Congress and Opposition.
According to officials, seven people were injured in Rupnagar after workers of the ruling Congress and the Shiromani Akali Dal clashed following a heated argument in ward number one in the city.
Skirmishes and scuffles were also reported from Batala, Rajpura, Tarn Taran, Bathinda, Gurdaspur, Samana, Rupnagar, Nabha, Nangal, Mohali and Ferozepur.
The Opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) accused the Congress workers of indulging in booth-capturing in Samana, Rajpura, Dhuri, Abohar and Bhikhiwind, a charge denied by the ruling party.
Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly Harpal Singh Cheema claimed that an AAP volunteer was allegedly shot at in Patti by some Congress activists. However, police rejected the charge.
Cheema alleged that the democracy was "murdered" in Punjab on Sunday by the Congress and sought the resignation of Chief Minister Amarinder Singh.
Talking to the media in Majitha, SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia accused the ruling Congress of misusing the government machinery to win the polls.
The voting percentage stood at 55.91 percent at 2 pm, according to reports. That number is expected to rise.
A total of 9,222 candidates were in the fray for 2,302 wards of the Abohar, Bathinda Batala, Kapurthala, Mohali, Hoshiarpur, Pathankot and Moga municipal corporations, in addition to the municipal councils and nagar panchayats.
PTI earlier reported skirmishes and heated exchanges between the workers of the ruling Congress and Opposition parties at Jagraon, Batala, Rupnagar, Rajpura, Tarn Taran and Bathinda.
#Punjabmunicipalbodypolls2021: Long queue of voters at Government Senior Secondary School, Phabhat village in Mohali
Follow live updates here: https://t.co/TkmzUhDtXk pic.twitter.com/N7CW6T2Xbt— TOIChandigarh (@TOIChandigarh) February 14, 2021
Congress candidate Yadwinder Singh Yadu, who was contesting a seat in the Muktsar municipal council, was injured in a clash on the outskirts of Muktsar town on Saturday night, as per News18.
News18 reported that Sudhir Sharma, a supporter of Yadu, was also injured in the incident.
Congress leader and ex-Muktsar MLA Karan Kaur Brar blamed members of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the violence, the report added.
Meanwhile, a tense situation prevailed in Batala after Congress and BJP workers clashed, News18 reported, adding that the situation was brought under control by the police.
The Tribune reported that tight security arrangements are in place.
News18 also reported that SAD candidate Parveen Kumar Pinna, who is contesting the Moga municipal corporation election, was "assaulted by unidentified people" outside the Arya School polling booth in the area.
Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly, AAP's Harpal Singh Cheema, demanded Chief Minister Amarinder Singh's resignation over the incidents of violence on Sunday.
The ensuing poll violence show that @capt_amarinder is a killer of democracy. I demand his immediate resignation. Instead of protecting the people of Punjab he is promoting his goons and suppressing the people's voices.@ArvindKejriwal@ZeePunjabHH@thetribunechd@htTweets
— Adv Harpal Singh Cheema (@HarpalCheemaMLA) February 14, 2021
SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia also accused the Congress government of "misusing government machinery to win the urban local bodies polls".
However, the Punjab Congress hit back at the Opposition parties and said they were making "baseless accusations".
Punjab Congress chief Sunil Jakhar said, "They (Opposition) do not have any argument against the Congress Party, which is fighting elections purely on the development work done in the state."
While the SAD and the AAP accused the Congress of misusing the government machinery, the BJP had charged the ruling party of "unleashing hooliganism under the guise of the farmers' protest".
EVM snags were also reported in a few places like Ludhiana and Mohali, reports said. Around 7,000 EVMs were deployed for voting, PTI reported.
Prominent among those who cast their votes till noon included Punjab minister Balbir Singh Sidhu, Akali leader Majithia, AAP legislator Aman Arora, and Punjab BJP chief Punjab Ashwani Sharma.
आइए पंजाब के उज्जवल भविष्य के लिये आपने मत का उपयोग करे।
पहले मतदान फिर जलपान।@BJP4Punjab #PunjabWithBJP pic.twitter.com/Q2UXh1yws1— Ashwani Sharma (@AshwaniSBJP) February 14, 2021
The State Election Commission (SEC) had set up 4,102 polling stations. Of these, 1,708 were declared as sensitive and 861 as hyper sensitive.
Out of the total candidates, 2,832 contested as Independents, 2,037 are of the ruling Congress and 1,569 of the Akali Dal. The number of candidates of the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Aam Aadmi Party and the BSP are 1,003, 1,606 and 160 respectively.
Former allies, the SAD and the BJP fought the municipals elections separately. The SAD had walked out of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to registers its opposition to the farm laws last year.
SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and other party leaders campaigned for their party candidates.
As many as 19,000 police personnel were deputed to conduct free and fair elections, the SEC said. Voters, including elderly citizens, began lining up at the polling booths early on Sunday morning.
Voters were also screened through thermal scanners at polling booths in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
There were 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, according to the SEC data.
The counting of votes will take place on 17 February.
With inputs from PTI
source https://www.firstpost.com/india/punjab-municipal-elections-polls-marred-by-stray-incidents-of-violence-evm-snags-aap-sad-target-congress-9302871.html
