Vote counting for Punjab civic body elections began at 8:00 AM on Friday across state and the counting process is underway for elections held in 8 Municipal Corporations, 75 Municipal Councils and 20 Nagar Panchayats and voting for these local body elections took place on May 26.
The counting process at Samana Municipal Council started with a delay of around 35 minutes however counting is now continuing across all centres under security arrangements made by State Election Commission and according to latest trends and declared results Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is leading the race in many areas of Punjab.
Out of total 1,977 wards trends or results have come for 309 wards so far.
- AAP: 158 seats
- Congress: 48 seats
- BJP: 5 seats
- Shiromani Akali Dal: 44 seats
- Others/Independents: 54 seats
Independent candidates are currently holding second position after AAP in several local bodies.
In Barnala AAP has won 8 out of total 50 wards declared so far.
In Malerkotla results have been announced for 4 out of 33 wards where Congress candidates won in 3 wards while AAP secured victory in 1 ward.
Kartarpur Nagar Council has declared results for 13 out of its 15 wards and among them:
- AAP won 9 wards
- Congress won 2 wards
- 2 Independent candidates won
In Goniana Nagar Council which has 23 wards following results have been reported so far:
- 3 Independent candidates won
- 1 AAP candidate won
- 1 Independent candidate was elected unopposed
In Gidderbaha Nagar Council Aam Aadmi Party won 7 out of total 19 wards.
In Garhshankar Council, 7 candidates of Aam Aadmi Party secured victory in municipal elections.
Aam Aadmi Party also performed strongly in Shri Anandpur Sahib Municipal Council elections.
AAP won 11 out of the total 13 seats in Shri Anandpur Sahib Municipal Council.
Several ward-wise results have also been declared from Samrala. Ramjit Singh of the Shiromani Akali Dal won from Ward No. 10. Rajinder Kaur of the AAP won from Ward No. 3, while Jaspreet Kaur of the AAP secured victory from Ward No. 5. Deepak Kumar of BJP won from Ward No. 8 while in Dera Bassi Municipal Council AAP candidate Harjit Kaur won from Ward No. 19.
Congress candidates performed strongly in Kapurthala Municipal Corporation and the party won from Wards No. 1, 6, 7, and 11. Deepak Salwan of Congress also won from Ward No. 1 of the Municipal Corporation.
In Bhawanigarh Nagar Council of Sangrur district Congress won from Ward No. 1 while Shiromani Akali Dal won from Ward No. 2. Congress also secured victory in Ward No. 6 of Bhawanigarh, which has a total of 15 wards.
According to official information around 21.38 lakh voters cast their votes in these civic body elections and a total of 7,554 candidates are in the fray across Punjab. Punjab State Election Commissioner Raj Kamal Chaudhari said that arrangements were made for free, fair and transparent counting of votes and also said that the counting supervisors and assistants were deployed after randomisation in every district. Two micro-observers have also been appointed at each counting centre to monitor the process under the supervision of district observers and along with this security has been tightened at all counting centres and entry inside counting halls has been restricted only to authorised persons.
More results are expected to be announced throughout the day as counting continues across Punjab.
