The Punjab Government has appointed administrators to run nine municipal corporations and 102 municipal councils and nagar panchayats, paving the way for holding elections to the civic bodies.According to sources, the government is expected to recommend to the State Election Commission to hold the polls in May. The elections are crucial considering the state poll next year. In two separate notifications issued by 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 of the elected bodies from the day their term ends. In case of the 102 municipal councils and nagar panchayats, SDMs of the respective sub-divisions have been named as administrators.Officials said the term of the current Nabha MC House expired on April 5, followed by Malerkotla, Zirakpur, Patti and Sunam on April 6.The term of a majority of civic body houses ends between April 8 and 19, while a few extend till mid-June, the last being Kotkapura on June 17.Recently, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had 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 the submission of objections to the draft notifications.The Punjab Government had on March 18 decided to withdraw notifications regarding the delimitation of wards for municipal councils and municipal corporations issued after December 31, 2025.Following this, the dispute was only about those civic bodies where the exercise was completed by December 31.The petitions were from different districts, challenging the exercise of delimitation of wards. In January, the high court had asked the government not to proceed with the process of the civic body polls in view of these petitions.