Panjab District & Block Polls on 14 Dec

Panjab Election Commissioner Raj Kamal Chaudhuri announced the state Zila Parishad (District Council, ZP) and Panchayat Samiti (Block Council, PS) elections on 14 Dec. The counting of votes will begin on 17 Dec; nominations started on 1 Dec. On 3 Dec, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal released an audio clip in which senior Patiala police officers allegedly are telling each other to ‘tear up nomination papers of SAD candidates’. While police called the phone call 'Artificial Intelligence generated', a social media news channel posted a video clip of a candidate's nomination papers being snatched in Ghanaur, district Patiala. After criticism from Indian National Congress (IC) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the police have now filed six First Information Reports against unknown people involving accusations of snatching and tearing of nomination papers. SAD Member of Parliament Harsimrat Kaur Badal has urged the Election Commission of India to suspend the elections. Panjab INC Leader of Opposition Partap Bajwa has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court (PHHC) for extension in date for filing of nominations. PHHC has given a two-day deadline to ECI to provide details of the audio clip. Unlike previous ZP and PS elections when the party did not find enough candidates, this time the BJP has secured 1.8K candidates willing to contest on the party symbol. The elections will affect Panjab’s government schools as hundreds of teachers have been pulled out for election duty. The Democratic Teachers Front (DTF), said they will meet Deputy Commissioners to protest what they called 'unjustified' deputing of women teachers to far flung polling stations. Meanwhile, Dr Navjot Kaur Sidhu has said her husband Navjot Singh Sidhu will return to active politics if the INC declares him as the party's chief ministerial face in Panjab. She added, 'We do not have USD 55M, which we can give to sit in the chief minister's chair.' The remark has led to furore among all parties and now the INC Panjab unit has suspended her.