Voting begins for Ludhiana MC poll

Chandigarh, Feb 24 (IANS) Voting began for the biggest municipal body in Punjab, the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (MC), on Saturday morning.

Voters started queuing up before 8 a.m., when the voting officially started. The voting will continue till 4 p.m., election officials said.

A total of 494 candidates are contesting for the 95 municipal wards. Results will be announced on February 27.

The main fight is between the ruling Congress, the Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya Janata Party (SAD-BJP) alliance and the Aam Aadmi Party-Lok Insaf Party alliance.

There are over 10.5 lakh voters in Ludhiana. 1,153 polling stations have been set up for voting.

Civic issues like water supply, lack of cleanliness, pollution, bad roads and infrastructure and poor sewerage are the main issues for common people in the election.

Tight security arrangements were in place on Saturday for the smooth conduct of the polling process.

The Congress, which runs the government in Punjab since March 2017, had won the municipal elections in the municipal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala in December.

The Congress party had also emerged victorious in 20 out of 29 Municipal Councils and Nagar Panchayats.