Lucknow: The much-awaited Panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh will start on Thursday with the first phase of polling in 18 districts.
The Panchayat elections will probably be held by poll papers and greater than 3.33 lakh candidates are in the fray in over 2.21 lakh seats in the first phase for the posts of Zila Panchayat (district council) members, kshetra (block) Panchayat members, village Panchayat heads and wards.
The districts that can go to polls on Thursday are Ayodhya, Agra, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Bareilly, Bhadohi, Mahoba, Rampur, Rae Bareli, Shravasti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Saharanpur, Hardoi and Hathras.
For the put up of Zila Panchayat members, 11,442 candidates are in the fray from 779 wards, whereas as many as 81,747 candidates are contesting in 19,313 wards of kshetra Panchayats.
For the Gram Panchayat, there are 1,14,142 candidates for 14,789 posts. And, for the Gram Panchayat wards, there are 1,26,613 candidates for 1,86,583 seats.
Apart from events just like the BJP, BSP, Samajwadi Party and the Congress, smaller events just like the AIMIM, Aam Aadmi Party and Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar`s Azad Samaj Party, are making their debut in the elections.
The AIMIM will contest polls with the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party.
The candidates will, nonetheless, contest on `free symbols` given by the Election Commission.
Congress state spokesperson Ashok Singh stated the Panchayat elections would spring a shock in the state as Congress would carry out `brilliantly` in the state.
“People who are virtually fed up with the misrule and misgovernance of the four-year-old BJP government in UP are looking towards the Congress with hope in their eyes,” he stated.
BJP state media convener Navin Srivastava stated, “The manner in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath have worked for the villagers, poor and farmers, it is evident that the BJP will sweep the Panchayat polls.”
In view of the coronavirus scenario, the State Election Commission (SEC) had stated in March that no more than 5 folks can be allowed to accompany a candidate throughout door-to-door campaigning for the Panchayat elections.
Additional Election Commissioner Ved Prakash Verma stated a three-member staff has been shaped beneath the extra district magistrates to make sure the directives issued by the SEC are being adopted.
During polling, the voters can have to put up a masks and preserve social distancing.
Verma stated Covid protocols would even be adopted throughout counting of votes and PPE kits would even be organized as per requirement.
