Chandigarh, Oct 15 : Polling for approximately 1.05 lakh candidates contesting for the posts of panch and sarpanch in Punjab began on Tuesday with voting happening through ballot boxes, officials said.

The voting will continue till 4 p.m. after which the ballots will be counted at the respective polling stations. The election is underway amid tight security arrangements despite calls for postponement by the Congress over alleged irregularities in nominations.

There will be more than 19,000 polling booths, covering over 13,000 gram panchayats.

A total of 3,798 candidates have been unanimously elected for the position of sarpanch, while 48,861 candidates have been selected for the panch. Elections in 28 gram panchayats have been cancelled, and one has been halted. As a result, voting will now take place for 9,398 gram panchayats.

Candidates have been barred from using symbols of political parties, in keeping with the Punjab Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2024, passed last month by the Legislative Assembly.

There are a total of 1.33 crore registered voters in the state, including 70.51 lakh men and 63.46 lakh women voters.

'Polling began at almost all polling stations. The deputy commissioners have been directed to ensure free and fair polls,' an official of the state election commission said.

On Monday, a Congress delegation, led by Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa, met with the Punjab State Election Commissioner, seeking a three-week postponement of the panchayat elections.

Bajwa said there were 'massive irregularities' in the nomination process, with several candidates' names being 'wrongfully' rejected. He said many Opposition-backed candidates were denied the necessary no-objection certificates during the filing of nominations.

The Congress has also raised concerns over the use of the voters' list from January 1, 2023, instead of the updated list from January 1, 2024, which was used during the Lok Sabha elections.

However, the state-ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has welcomed the Punjab and Haryana High Court's Monday decision to dismiss the petition regarding panchayat elections and expressed gratitude to the High Court.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann thanked the High Court via X and stated that the path for panchayat elections is now completely clear. He urged all Punjabis to vote while maintaining mutual brotherhood and to choose good representatives from their villages who could contribute to the village's development. He also wished good luck to all sarpanch and panch candidates for the panchayat elections.

Aam Aadmi Party leader and senior spokesperson Neel Garg said that the High Court's decision is a tight slap on the face of the false propaganda of opposition parties. He mentioned they spread a false narrative to mislead the people and levelled baseless accusations against us. He stated that Congress was playing "pressure politics", but the High Court rejected it. Now the people of Punjab will also reject Congress.

/IANS