Chandigarh, September 19: Polling for the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections 2018 held today for 22 Zila Parishads and 150 Panchayat Samitis. The polls witnessed a triangular contest between the ruling Congress, the Aam Aadmi Party and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) combine. The polling began at 8 am and ended at 4 pm.

The polling took place on 354 Zila Parishad seats and 2,900 panchayat seats. The result will be declared on September 22. In Majha region, the Congress has won 25 per cent of seats unopposed. In total, thirty-three candidates were elected unopposed to various Zila Parishads, and 369 nominees were elected unopposed to the Panchayat Samitis.  A total of 17,268 polling booths were set up, 35 observers appointed and around 50,000 police personnel deployed for the polls in Punjab. There are a total of 1,27,87,395 registered voters in Punjab, comprising 60,99,053 women and 97 third-gender voters.

Opposition party Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) accused the ruling party of booth capturing. The Congress is considered a favourite to win these local body elections. Clashes between Congress and Akali workers were reported from Rajasansi in Amritsar, Jhoke Harihar in Ferozepur, Lodhi Gujjar in Ajnala and Sohia Kalan in Majitha. Apart from these incidents, the polls were conducted peacefully.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 19, 2018 09:21 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).