Six injured in two firing incidents in Punjab panchayat polls

Chandigarh, Oct 15 (IANS) Two incidents of firing were reported on Tuesday as counting of ballots for panchayat polls, is underway in Punjab. Four people were injured in Tarn Taran and two were injured in another incident in Patiala during voting.

Also, two government employees died owing to poor health as polling for over 13,000 gram panchayats was underway.

The polling for approximately 1.05 lakh candidates contesting for the posts of panch and sarpanch was held from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. with voting happening through ballot boxes, officials said.

The State Election Commission cancelled the polling at Dalla and Pona villages in Ludhiana's Jagraon sub-division due to technical reasons.

Now, the counting of ballots is underway amid tight security arrangements despite calls for postponement by the Congress over alleged irregularities in nominations.

The panchayat poll proceeded after the Supreme Court on Tuesday decided not to put a stay, saying there would be “chaos” if courts started staying elections on polling day.

“If polling has started today, how can we intervene at this stage? Probably the high court realised the gravity of it and vacated the stay on the elections,” the bench, comprising Justices J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, headed by Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said.

One of the deceased government employees has been identified as Lakha Singh, 53, a senior sub-inspector with Punjab Police. Lakha was on poll duty in Dhilwan village of Barnala. Another employee was Amarinder Singh, a 36-year-old government school teacher from Fazilka, who was on poll duty in Jalandhar.

As many as 3,798 candidates have been unanimously elected for the position of sarpanch, while 48,861 candidates have been selected for the panch. Elections in 28 gram panchayats have been cancelled, and one has been halted. As a result, voting took place for 9,398 gram panchayats.

Candidates have been barred from using symbols of political parties, in keeping with the Punjab Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2024, passed last month by the Legislative Assembly.

There were 1.33 crore registered voters in the state, including 70.51 lakh men and 63.46 lakh women voters.

On Monday, a Congress delegation, led by Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, met with the Punjab State Election Commissioner, seeking a three-week postponement of the panchayat elections.

Bajwa said there were “massive irregularities” in the nomination process, with several candidates’ names being “wrongfully” rejected. He said many Opposition-backed candidates were denied the necessary no-objection certificates during the filing of nominations.

The Congress has also raised concerns over the use of the voters’ list from January 1, 2023, instead of the updated list from January 1, 2024, which was used during the Lok Sabha elections.

However, the state-ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has welcomed the Punjab and Haryana High Court's Monday decision to dismiss the petition regarding panchayat elections and expressed gratitude to the High Court.

--IANS

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