Chandigarh: Polling was today underway in three municipal corporations including Amritsar, Jalandhar and Patiala and 29 municipal councils and Nagar panchayats in Punjab today amid tight security. The voting started at 8 AM and will continue till 4 PM, a spokesman of the State Election Commission said here. 

The ruling Congress, the SAD-BJP, and the AAP are contesting the polls on party symbols. As many as 925 candidates are in the fray for the elections to the three municipal corporations. A total of 8,000 election staff and 15,500 police personnel have been deployed at polling stations. There are a total of 873 polling stations in the state having 1,938 polling booths.   

In Amritsar, 154 polling stations out of the total 366 have been declared sensitive while 136 have been declared hypersensitive.   Similarly, out of the 554 polling booths in Jalandhar 344 have been declared sensitive and 31 as very sensitive. The spokesman further said that the Election Commission has ordered videography of 103 hypersensitive wards. 

The polling is being held in respect of 222 wards out of 225 wards of 3 municipal corporations and 327 wards of 29 municipal councils and Nagar Panchayats. The civic polls in the state are being held nine months after the state assembly elections were held in Punjab.The Congress had wrested power from the SAD-BJP combine in the state. Notably, it would be for the first time that voters would have the 'None Of The Above' option in civic bodies polls.