Campaigning for the May 26 municipal elections in Punjab came to a close on Sunday evening, with candidates engaging in road shows to reach the maximum number of voters. The elections cover 104 municipal bodies, including eight municipal corporations, and are viewed as a major electoral exercise ahead of the state assembly elections scheduled for early next year.
Candidate Distribution Across Parties
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is contesting in the highest number of wards at 1,801, followed by the Congress with 1,550 candidates, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with 1,316, and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) with 1,251 candidates. Senior party functionaries, including AAP state president Aman Arora, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, and Union Minister of State Ravneet Singh Bittu, campaigned for their respective party candidates.
Scrutiny Controversies and Protests
During the scrutiny process, the ruling party was accused of pressuring returning officers to reject nominations from opposition parties, sparking protests. In Faridkot, the Shiromani Akali Dal held a protest march against the arrest of SAD district president Satish Grover and constituency in charge Parambans Singh Romana.
Earlier, Hem Raj Goyal, the BJP candidate from Bathinda's ward number 16, wrote to the State Election Commissioner, the Director General of Police, the district election officer, and the Senior Superintendent of Police, requesting that the ward be declared 'hypersensitive' to prevent potential rigging.
Family Rivalries and Political Speculations
The elections have also witnessed family members contesting against each other in some wards of Barnala and other areas. Meanwhile, following the appointment of AAP's Hoshiarpur MP Raj Kumar Chabbewal as constituency in charge for Phagwara assembly constituency—indicating he may be fielded from there in the upcoming assembly elections—electorates in Barnala speculate that Sangrur MP Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer might be preparing to contest the next assembly elections from Barnala. Hayer, who represented Barnala in 2017 and 2022 before being fielded for the Lok Sabha in 2024, has campaigned extensively in Barnala. When asked, he neither confirmed nor denied the possibility.
