A voter turnout of 13.5% was recorded till 10 a.m. on Tuesday (May 26, 2026) in the elections to 103 municipal bodies, including eight municipal corporations, in Punjab, officials said.
Polling through ballot papers began at 8 a.m. and will continue till 5 p.m. The counting of votes will take place on May 29.
Elections are being held in 1,896 wards across eight municipal corporations — Mohali, Bathinda, Abohar, Barnala, Kapurthala, Moga, Batala, and Pathankot — besides 75 municipal councils and 20 Nagar Panchayats, officials said.
A total of 7,555 candidates are in the fray. The ruling party AAP has fielded the highest number of candidates at 1,801, followed by 1,550 from the Congress, 1,316 from the BJP, 1,251 from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), and 96 from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).
Besides, there are 1,528 Independent candidates contesting the polls.
As many as 1,613 candidates are contesting in 396 wards of the eight municipal corporations. In 75 municipal councils, 5,142 candidates are in the fray in 1,282 wards, while 800 candidates are contesting in 218 wards of the 20 Nagar Panchayats.
There are 35,45,567 registered voters for these municipal bodies, which include 17,11,635 women and 220 others.
A total of 740 polling booths have been declared sensitive and 275 hyper-sensitive.
Around 35,000 election personnel and 32,000 police personnel have been deployed on election duty.
Voters, particularly elderly individuals and women, were seen queuing up at polling booths in the morning, despite a heatwave warning.
Punjab BJP working president Ashwani Sharma cast his vote at a polling booth in Pathankot and urged people to exercise their franchise to make Pathankot a “developed Pathankot” and strengthen democracy.
AAP MLA Amansher Singh Sherry Kalsi cast his vote in Batala.
Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, along with his wife Amrita Warring, reached a polling station in Muktsar on a bullock cart. Warring said he wanted to give a message to the Union government that ordinary citizens are “suffering” because of the frequent fuel price hikes.
Punjab Cabinet Ministers Aman Arora and Harjot Singh Bains also urged voters to cast their votes.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia alleged that there was no arrangement of wheelchairs for differently abled voters at polling stations. He claimed that voters who are unable to walk independently were facing inconvenience.
Officials said elaborate arrangements have been made to ensure smooth, peaceful, and transparent polling, while adequate security personnel were deployed at polling stations and sensitive locations to maintain law and order.
The Punjab government has declared a holiday in the state on May 26 to facilitate voting. The holiday will also apply to all Punjab government offices, boards, corporations, and educational institutions situated in Chandigarh.
The local body elections are being seen as crucial for all major political parties — the AAP, BJP, Congress, and SAD — as these are taking place ahead of the 2027 Punjab assembly polls.
Published – May 26, 2026 11:32 am IST
