Voting for the primary of the four-phase Uttar Pradesh panchayat elections, seen as a semi-final to the 2022 Assembly election, will probably be held on Thursday in 18 districts with poll papers. More than 3.33 lakh candidates within the fray in over 2.21 lakh seats within the first section for the posts of zila panchayat (district council) members, kshetra (block) panchayat members, village panchayat heads and wards.
Polling will happen from 7 am to six pm. The districts that can go to polls are Ayodhya, Agra, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur, Jhansi, Allahabad, Bareilly, Bhadohi, Mahoba, Rampur, Raebareli, Shravasti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Saharanpur, Hardoi and Hathras.
For the put up of zila panchayat members, 11,442 candidates are within 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. For 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, amongst these within the race are the AIMIM, Aam Aadmi Party and Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad’s Azad Samaj Party, that are making their debut within the state. The AIMIM will contest polls with the Suheldev Bhartiya Samaj Party The candidates will, nevertheless, contest on ‘free symbols’ given the the Election Commission. Congress state spokesperson Ashok Singh mentioned the panchayat elections would spring a shock within the state as it might carry out “brilliantly” within 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,” Singh mentioned. “The panchayat elections will unfurl the wave of change in the state.”
Reacting to it, BJP state media co-convenor Navin Srivastava mentioned: “The way 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.”
“The work done by the government in arranging ration and employment for lakhs of people who migrated back to UP during the corona pandemic will help the BJP to win the election,” Srivastava mentioned. In view of the coronavirus scenario, the State Election Commission (SEC) had mentioned in March that no more than 5 individuals can be allowed to accompany a candidate throughout door-to-door campaigning for the panchayat elections.
Additional Election Commissioner Ved Prakash Verma mentioned a three-member workforce was fashioned below the extra district magistrates to make sure the directives issued by the SEC have been being adopted. At the district-level, the chief medical officers have been made nodal officers and stress has been laid on Covid-19 prevention.
During polling, the voters must put up a masks and preserve social distancing. Instructions have additionally been issued to make circles at a distance of six-feet on the polling centres. Verma mentioned COVID-19 norms would even be adopted throughout counting of votes and PPE kits would even be organized as per requirement.
The Allahabad High Court had requested the state authorities to finish the panchayat-election course of by May 25.
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