Key sentence:
- On Saturday, the state election committee claimed 9,222 candidates were left in the fray towards the last date for the withdrawals.
- There are 2,037 Congressional candidates left throughout the fray in the A as well as B councils.
- In Maluka, a total of seven members of the ruling Congress has no challenger.
On Saturday, the state election committee claimed 9,222 candidates were left in the fray towards the last date for the withdrawals as well as the rejection of candidates for civic body elections ending on Saturday. Overall, 2,832 members are contesting as independents (around 30 per cent); this is attributable to the fact that certain councils have been categorized into A, B, and C. The C councils are quite small, as well as the elections here are not limited to symbols.
There are 2,037 Congressional candidates left throughout the fray in the A and B councils, while 1,606 candidates belonging to the AAP in the primary opposition in the Punjab assembly. There are 1,569 members from the SAD, with 1,003 from the BJP.
The BSP also fields one hundred sixty candidates. The BJP was unable to appoint any candidate from Tarn Taran throughout the final count.
24 Cong members in the Bathinda district expected to be elected unopposed.
In seven metropolitan local district bodies, at least 24 congressional candidates are expected to be seated unopposed.
According to District Electoral Officer B Srinivasan, a maximum of 33 candidates, including nine independents, do not have an electoral competitor in the district.
The district has six municipal councils and eight Nagar panchayats besides 50 divisions in the Bathinda municipal corporation.
Throughout the district, there were 769 candidates in the fray.
In Maluka, Congress has no challenger:
In Maluka, the native location of veteran Akali leader Sikander Singh Maluka, seven members of the ruling Congress has no challenger. There are 11 wards in the Maluka Nagar Panchayat. These were followed by Mehraj, the ancestral village of Capt Amarinder Singh, Chief Minister, from which five candidates for Congress do not have a political opponent.
Lehra Mohabbat Nagar panchayat wound up in an unusual situation wherein four wards do not have a candidate.
In favour of their claim to restore it all to a gram panchayat position, it happens as the residents had declared to boycott the electoral process.
All seven candidates have no opponents:
Following the citizens’ unanimous move to stay away from the elections, none of the four primary political parties has put forward candidates. However, at the eleventh hour during the last day of submitting election papers, independent candidates considered close to Congress submitted papers from all 11 wards.
The seven independent candidates have no opponents from their wards after review of records and withdrawal.
