Haryana panchayat polls: Polling underway for zila parishad, panchayat samitis in nine districts

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Chandigarh: Polling was underway on Sunday to elect members of zila parishads and panchayat samitis in nine districts of Haryana in the first phase of the panchayat polls, officials said. In 61 blocks of nine districts-- Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Kaithal, Mahendragarh, Nuh, Panchkula, Panipat and Yamunanagar -- polling is being held to elect 1,278 Panchayat Samiti members and 175 Zilla Parishad members. As many as 49,67,092 voters in nine districts are eligible to exercise their vote in the first phase of polling, for which 6,019 polling booths have been set up. Polling began at 7 am and will continue till 6 pm.

In the first phase, polling for sarpanches and panches will be held on November 2.

Haryana State Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh had earlier said that 133 sarpanches and 17,158 panches have been unanimously elected in nine districts of the state ahead of the November 2 polls.

Singh had said 56 candidates have been unanimously elected for the panchayat samitis.

In the first phase, 34,371 candidates are in the fray for the posts of panch, sarpanch and member, panchayat samiti and zila parishads. Of them, 19,175 are men and 15,196 women.

Overall, there are a total of 6,220 gram panchayats, 143 panchayat samitis, and 22 zila parishads.

While the results of the sarpanches and panches polls will be declared at the end of voting of each phase, the results of zila parishads and panchayat samiti members will be declared on November 27 after completion of all three phases of polling.

In the second phase, voting will be held in nine more districts on November 9 for zila parishad and panchayat samiti members and polling for sarpanches and panches will be held on November 12.

The third and final phase of polling in the remaining districts to elect members of zila parishad and panchayat samitis will be held on November 22 and that of sarpanches and panches of gram panchayats on November 25.