Chandigarh, May 16
The Punjab State Election Commission has decided to hold municipal elections in Punjab in two phases on June 7 and 10. The polls are expected to be notified early next week, according to sources in the government.

The first phase of the poll will see elections in some municipal committees, notified area committees and wards of committees. During the second phase on June 10, elections will be held in four municipal corporations of Amritsar, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala. The Punjab Government had recommended the holding of the elections around the finalised dates as the next session of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha is scheduled for mid-June.

The government had recommended that the election process should be completed before the session.

Besides the four municipal corporations, elections will be held in 29 notified area committees (NACs) and three municipal committees. Bye-elections will also be held in 24 wards of committees that have fallen vacant for one reason or the other.

The MC elections are being watched closely as these will see a close fight between the Congress and the ruling SAD-BJP alliance. The Congress is hoping to make its presence felt in Punjab’s four major cities, while the alliance is claiming that it will sweep the polls.