Ludhiana: AAP only party with candidates in all 95 MC wards

After the scrutiny of nomination papers for the upcoming municipal corporation (MC) elections, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is the only group left with candidates in all 95 wards, according to data from election officials.

Over the past few days, the Opposition parties have been up in arms against the administration over what they said was a ‘deliberate’ rejection of nominations of their candidates on directions from the state government.

The other three main parties in fray are the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).

There are at least 18 wards where three candidates are left in fray.

In some of the wards, one candidate is an independent.

A total of 682 nominations were received by the poll officials from the 95 wards – including independents.

At least 19 nominations were rejected for multiple reasons and 213 nominations were withdrawn, leaving 447 candidates are in the fray for the elections scheduled on December 21.

Ward Number 36 has a maximum of 10 candidates and Ward Number 40 has 8 candidates.

A total of 15 candidates had filed nominations from Ward Number 36, of which five withdrew their papers.

None of the nominations were rejected. From Ward Number 40, a total of 12 nominations were filed and four candidates withdrew their papers.

Ward numbers 5, 12, 19, 45, 30, 75, 77, 78, 82, 86, 88, 90, 9, 28, 83, 85, 69 and 70 have three candidates each.