Phase-II panchayat polls tomorrow, nominations for phase-III polls over

JAIPUR: The campaigning for zila parishad and panchayat samiti elections in phase-II of the panchayat polls came to a close on Tuesday evening as the polling will begin on Thursday morning. For phase-III polls, which would be held on January 31, Tuesday was the last day for filing nominations.
At the same time, Tuesday was also the day when votes were cast to elect panchs and sarpanchs in 382 gram panchayats across the state.The elections in these gram panchayats were rescheduled to an earlier date last week by the state election commission since the terms of office of the outgoing panchs and sarpanchs in these areas were expiring before the originally scheduled polling date of January 24. Similarly, polling for panchs and sarpanchs in another 119 gram panchayats was rescheduled from polling date of February 1 (in phase-III) to January 28.
In case of re-polling for gram panchayats, the state election commission on Tuesday authorised the district collectors to decide suitable dates at their levels. However, in case re-polling is required for any zila parishad or panchayat samiti seat, the poll date would still be February 4 only, as scheduled earlier.
Even as the elections were being held in three phases, the counting of votes would take place on February 5. For the phase-II and phase-III seats, the votes would be cast on January 22 and 31, respectively. The phase-I polling took place on January 16.
In the entire three phases, 9,872 sarpanchs, 1,09,469 gram panchs, 295 pradhans, 6,258 panchayat samiti members, 33 zila pramukhs and 1,013 zila parishad members would be elected.