UP Panchayat elections 2021: BJP declares list of candidates for first phase

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New Delhi: For three-tier panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday released the first list of candidates for 11 districts, including Ghaziabad and Gorakhpur. The nomination for the first phase of UP Panchayat polls will start on April 3. 

The BJP released the list of Zila Panchayat wards for Ghaziabad, Saharanpur, and Rampur districts, along with finalising 49 candidates for Ghaziabad, and named candidates for 33 seats in Saharanpur, besides declaring 34 names for Rampur. 

The party has also decided on names for various seats in Kannauj, Kanpur Nagar, Sant Kabir Nagar, Chitrakoot, Mahoba, Gorakhpur, RaeBareli, and Shravasti districts.

Notably, the three-tier Panchayat elections in Uttar Pradesh will be held in four phases in which all the major political parties will contest with their full strength.

The ruling party is aiming to win as many seats as it can in the Panchayat elections because the victory will prepare the ground for the Assembly elections scheduled next year.

Notably, the nomination process for the UP Panchayat elections will begin on Saturday, and it will get completed by April 18. The second phase of nomination will be on April 7 and 8, while the third phase will occur on April 13 and April 15, and the fourth phase will be from April 17 to April 18.

The first phase will include Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Hathras, Agra, Kanpur Nagar, Jhansi, Mahoba, Prayagraj, Bareilly, Rae Bareli, Hardoi, Ayodhya, Basti, Santakbirnagar, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur and Bhadohi. The voting will take place on Thursday (April 15). 

The second phase will be held in Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Gutmbud Nagar, Bijnor, Amroha, Badaun, Etah, Mainpuri, Kannauj, Etawah, Lalitpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Lucknow, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sultanpur, Gonda, Maharajganj, Varanasi, and Azamgarh districts.

The third phase of Panchayat elections will be held in Shamli, Meerut, Moradabad, Pilibhit, Kasganj, Firozabad, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Unnao, Amethi, Barabanki, Balrampur, Siddharthnagar, Deoria, Chandauli, Mirzapur, and in Ballia on Monday (April 26).

In the fourth and last phase, voting will be held on April 29 in Bulandshahr, Hapur, Sambhal, Shahjahanpur, Aligarh, Mathura, Farrukhabad, Banda, Kaushambi, Sitapur, Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich, Basti, Kushinagar, Ghazipur, Sonbhadra, and Mau districts of eastern UP. 

Notably, the voters will be provided with four ballots of different colours during the Panchayat polls. For example, the vote of the District Panchayat member will be in pink, the colour of the ballet paper of the village head will be green, while the ballot paper of the Kshetra Panchayat Member (BDC) will be in purple colour, and white ballot paper has been prescribed for Gram Panchayat members.