Ludhiana MC polls unlikely before May, hints minister Inderbir Singh Nijjar

LUDHIANA: As the term of Ludhiana MC house is ending in last week of March, officials in the local bodies ministry have suggested that the MC elections may not happen before May this year. In the meanwhile, government sources aver that a technical committee is expected to carry on routine works of MC till the MC elections are held in Ludhiana.
Talking to The Times of India, Inderbir Singh Nijjar, local government minister, suggested that they haven't decided about the MC elections yet but these will not be before May. He added that elections can be held "probably little beyond that (May)."
The minister said that delimitation of wards has been done and election commissioner has been appointed so the elections will be conducted soon.
The local government minister suggested that the MC elections can be held till six months after the term of house end and there is no illegality in that. Meanwhile, sources in the local government department suggest that there may be an increase of 2 to 3 wards in Ludhiana MC house after delimitation. As of now, the civic body has 95 wards. They added that there may be increase of one each wards in Ludhiana South and Atam Nagar assembly segments.
Besides, there have been wards wherein there has been re-alignment of voters (votes from a ward added to other wards and vice versa).
"The number of wards cannot be increased to 100 as in that case there will be two corporations with two mayors," said a source.