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Panchayat polls in Punjab on July 3
Sarbjit Dhaliwal/TNS

Chandigarh, June 13
Punjab will go to the polls to elect its 13,080 village panchayats on July 3. The counting of votes will be held the same day.

Around 19,000 polling booths will be set up to elect 81,412 panchayat members besides 13,080 sarpanches.

The notification will be issued on June 19. The filing of nomination papers will begin the same day and continue till June 22. The scrutiny of nomination papers will be held on June 24 and the last date for withdrawal of papers will be June 25.

Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Surjit Singh Rakhra held a meeting with officials concerned soon after the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed a petition filed by the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee challenging the delimitation of wards in villages.

They agreed to hold the elections in July as farmers across the state would remain busy sowing paddy during June. The election process is required to be completed before July 20.

The State Election Commission decided on the dates for the election process after the authorities informed the commission about their preparedness to hold the elections.

The code of conduct will remain in force from June 19 to July 4, said State Election Commissioner SS Brar.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal hailed the high court verdict saying it was a “defeat for politics of obstructionism”.

He said the judgment would bring the Congress back to the path of democratic practices rather than putting hurdles in the way of the exercise of popular will at the grass-roots level.

Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh said it was “a pathetic self-goal” by PPCC chief Partap Singh Bajwa, adding that the Congress was now “a compulsive loser, facing defeat in courts of law after facing defeats in people’s courts”.