Ludhiana: Municipal elections are on 21 December in Ludhiana, Punjab. All political parties have announced their candidates, and all the candidates filed nomination papers on 12 December. According to the report sent by the Election Commission to the district administration late night, nominations of 19 candidates have been cancelled. These candidates include 4 from the BJP, 3 from SAD, and 1 from the Congress.
Today is the last day to withdraw nominations. At present, a total of 663 candidates are left in the electoral fray. When the papers of those who filed nominations were examined, the nominations were cancelled citing deficiencies in some of the papers. The cancelled candidates include BJP’s Ward No. 5, Ward No. 32, Ward No. 45, Ward No. 85 candidates.
The nominations of SAD’s Ward Nos. 12, 17, and 24 candidates have also been cancelled. Similarly, the nomination of Congress candidate Anmol Dutt from Ward 34 was also rejected after deficiencies were found in the papers.
This time the commission has also fixed the limit of expenditure to be made during the civic elections. Under this, a candidate contesting for the Municipal Corporation can spend up to Rs 4 lakh. Similarly, the limit of expenditure for Municipal Council class 1 has been fixed at Rs 3 lakh 60 thousand.
The limit for class 2 in the Municipal Council will be 2 lakh 30 thousand and for class 3 it will be 2 lakh. Every candidate will have to give details of expenditure within 30 days of the end of the election. A general observer will be appointed in every Municipal Corporation.