UP panchayat polls 2021: Voting for over 2.23 lakh posts in 20 districts begins in second phase

The first round of the four-phased Uttar Pradesh panchayat elections had witnessed over 60 per cent of polling on April 15.

File Photo (ANI)

New Delhi: Voting for over 2.23 lakh posts in 20 districts in the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh panchayat polls has started on Monday (April 19, 2021) morning, where more than 3.48 lakh candidates are in the fray.

The voting began at 7 am and will go on till 6 pm with over 3.23 crore voters eligible to exercise their franchise. 

Apart from important places like Lucknow and Varanasi, polling is taking place in Amroha, Azamgarh, Etawah, Etah, Kannauj, Gonda, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Budaun, Baghpat, Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Mainpuri, Maharajganj, Lakhimpur Kheri, Lalitpur and Sultanpur districts.

For the 787 posts of members of Zila panchayats, there are 11,483 candidates, whereas, for the 19,653 seats of kshetra panchayats, 85,232 candidates are in the fray. 

On the other hand, for the gram panchayats, there are 1,21,906 candidates for 14,897 posts. For the gram panchayat wards, there are as many as 1,30,305 candidates for 1,87,781 posts. 

As per reports, over 2.31 lakh poll officials have been deployed by the State Election Commission (SEC) for the smooth conduct of the panchayat elections.

Earlier on April 15, the first round of the four-phased Uttar Pradesh panchayat elections witnessed over 60 per cent of polling. 

In the first phase of polls, more than 3.33 lakh candidates were in the fray in over 2.21 lakh seats for the posts of Zila panchayat (district council) members, kshetra (block) panchayat members, village panchayat heads, and wards.

The polling, which was done with ballot papers, was held in the 18 districts of Ayodhya, Agra, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur, Jhansi, Allahabad, Bareilly, Bhadohi, Mahoba, Rampur, Raebareli, Shravasti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Saharanpur, Hardoi and Hathras.

(With inputs from agencies)