Voting begins for 2nd phase of UP panchayat polls amid Covid surge

UP panchayat polls have been spiced up with the participation of Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM)

Voting for the second phase of panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh begun at 7am on Monday and will continue till 6pm. More than 30 million voters are eligible to cast their vote across 20 districts, including Lucknow, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Varanasi in this phase of the three-tier rural elections, held in the shadow of a record surge in Covid-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh. The polls are being held for the posts of members of zila panchayats, and kshetra panchayats.

In the second phase of UP Panchayat polls, more than three crore voters are eligible to cast their vote across 20 districts. (PTI Phot/Representative)

“We have made all arrangements to ensure free and fair elections with full compliance to Covid protocol through 231,748 poll staff,” said state election commissioner Manoj Kumar. The first phase on April 21 saw 71% voting.

All voters were required to wear face masks, sanitise their hands and ensure social distancing, as per the Covid-19 guidelines issued by the state election commission (SEC) in late March. Polling booths will be sanitised and voters and polling staff will be thermally screened. The commission had earlier banned more than five people from accompanying a candidate during the door-to-door campaigning for the polls. UP registered the highest single-day rise in Covid-19 cases as well as fatality count, with the disease claiming 129 more lives, while 30,596 fresh cases pushed its Covid-19 tally to 851,620 on Sunday.

The panchayat polls have been spiced up with the participation of Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Asaduddin Owaisi’s All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, which are looking to upset the traditional players—the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress. Bhim Army chief Chandra Shekhar Aazad’s Azad Samaj Party is also in the fray.

The SEC has dispatched 23 Indian Administrative Services and UP Provincial Civil Service officers as observers to ensure free and fair polls in all the 20 districts.

The polling for the third and the last phase will be held on April 26 and 29. Counting of votes is scheduled to start on May 2.