The Punjab government has appointed administrators to run nine municipal corporations, 102 municipal councils and nagar panchayats across the state after their five-year terms are expiring in the coming weeks.This has paved the way for holding elections to the civic bodies.Sources in the government said the government is expected to recommend to the state election commission to hold the polls in May. The urban elections are crucial not only for the ruling AAP, but also for the Congress, Akali Dal and the BJP, as they would be a litmus test to gauge the mood of the urban voters ahead of the 2027 assembly polls.In two separate notifications issued by the Secretary, Local Government, Manjit Singh Brar, the term of the elected civic bodies has been specified. For the nine municipal corporations, Abohar, Mohali, Hoshiarpur, Bathinda, Batala, Barnala, Pathankot, Moga and Kapurthala, the respective Commissioners have been appointed to exercise all powers and perform all duties of the elected bodies from the day after their terms end.In the case of the 102 municipal councils and nagar panchayats, Sub-Divisional Magistrates of the respective sub-divisions have been named as administrators. Officials said the term of the Nabha expired on April 5, followed by Malerkotla, Zirakpur, Patti and Sunam on April 6. The majority of terms end between April 8 and April 19, while a few extend till mid-June, the last being Kotkapura on June 17.Recently, the Punjab and Haryana high court has upheld the Punjab government’s delimitation exercise of wards for municipal councils and municipal corporations completed on or before December 31, 2025.The court found that there was no violation of norms by the government in giving shorter periods of time for submission of objections to the draft notifications.Notably, the Punjab government had on March 18 decided to withdraw notifications regarding delimitation of wards for municipal councils and municipal corporations issued after December 31, 2025. Following this, the dispute was pending only about those civic bodies where the exercise was completed by December 31.The petitions were from different districts, challenging the exercise of the delimitation of wards. In January, the high court had asked the Punjab government not to proceed with the process of the civic body polls for nine municipal corporations and approximately 100 municipal councils and municipal committees in view of these petitions.The petitioners had argued that the process of delimitation, which has been initiated or finalised after December 31, can’t be done in view of the August 2025 notification of the Centre with Pan-India directions that no change is to be undertaken regarding the boundaries of the towns, districts, including the wards which are existing in a town in view of the planning for the Census 2027.The petitions dealing with this set of allegations were disposed of on March 18 after the government withdrew the delimitation exercise in the case of those where notification came after December 31, 2025.The petition was disposed of after the state government withdrew the notification on delimitation issued after December 31, 2025.