Ludhiana: With the process of delimitation of city wards likely to take another week, the move will delay MC polls in the industrial hub further. The civic officials have been conducting re-verification of population in some wards that could not be completed due to recent fire and building collapse incident. However, the MC polls in Ludhiana cannot be held before January end or February beginning next year.
As the number of wards will increase from 75 to 95 post delimitation, political parties are awaiting for the process to be over before inviting applications from interested candidates. The officials have been told to re-verify the population in around 12 wards after Congress MLA Rakesh Pandey and LIP MLA Simarjit Bains had raised objections over division of population in the wards of their respective constituencies.
The MC officials were about to complete the re-verification process a week ago but fire incident in a factory at Suffian Chowk kept the entire MC staff on toes resulting in delay in delimitation process. However, joint commissioner Kulpreet Singh said re-verification was in final stage and they would send the final report to the government in a day or two.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Sanjay Talwar said earlier they were expecting MC polls in Ludhiana in the first week of January but now it was not possible before January end or first week of February. He added that by next week they would try to finalize the delimitation process and notification was also expected to be issued.
As per the political leaders, 10 days will be given for public objections over ward delimitation after final notification after which 21 days are required for finalizing voters list and once the election commission would announce the dates for polls, 11 days would be given for the entire process of elections.
Present wards- 75
Proposed wards after delimitation-95
At present of the 75 councillors in the house, SAD has 20 councillors, BJP 12, while Congress has 20 members, besides 23 independents.
As the number of wards will increase from 75 to 95 post delimitation, political parties are awaiting for the process to be over before inviting applications from interested candidates. The officials have been told to re-verify the population in around 12 wards after Congress MLA Rakesh Pandey and LIP MLA Simarjit Bains had raised objections over division of population in the wards of their respective constituencies.
The MC officials were about to complete the re-verification process a week ago but fire incident in a factory at Suffian Chowk kept the entire MC staff on toes resulting in delay in delimitation process. However, joint commissioner Kulpreet Singh said re-verification was in final stage and they would send the final report to the government in a day or two.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA Sanjay Talwar said earlier they were expecting MC polls in Ludhiana in the first week of January but now it was not possible before January end or first week of February. He added that by next week they would try to finalize the delimitation process and notification was also expected to be issued.
As per the political leaders, 10 days will be given for public objections over ward delimitation after final notification after which 21 days are required for finalizing voters list and once the election commission would announce the dates for polls, 11 days would be given for the entire process of elections.
Present wards- 75
Proposed wards after delimitation-95
At present of the 75 councillors in the house, SAD has 20 councillors, BJP 12, while Congress has 20 members, besides 23 independents.
Get latest news & live updates on the go on your pc with News App. Download The Times of India news app for your device.
