Panchayat bypolls across the state to be held on February 9

The state election commission will conduct panchayat-level by-election for vacant positions of village heads, and members of the panchayat samiti and the zilla parishad

The state election commission will conduct panchayat-level by-election for vacant positions of village heads, and members of the panchayat samiti and the zilla parishad across the state on February 9. In Gurugram, all the four blocks, namely Farukkhnagar, Sohna, Pataudi, and Gurugram, will go for the bypolls.

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The villages for which the bypolls are scheduled include Khentawas, Jamal Pur, Hari Nagar, Dooma and Jori Khurd in Farukkhnagar; Nainwal, Daultabad and Naharpur Kasan in Gurugram; Chhilarki and Baspadamka in Pataudi, and Abheypur in Sohna.

The by-election will be held under the Haryana Panchayati Raj (Election) Rules, 1994, while the process of filing nomination will commence from Thursday and will continue till January 28. During the same period, candidates will also have to submit an affidavit and furnish declaration regarding income and educational qualification. On January 29, nomination papers will be scrutinised, while January 31 will be the last date of withdrawal of candidature for all the contesting candidates. On February 9, the poll will be conducted from 8am till 4pm.

Officials of the panchayat department say that the preparations are underway. Narender Sarwan, panchayat and district development officer, said, “State election commission decides whether to use electronic voting machines (EVMs) or ballot papers. In the previous bypolls, EVMs were used throughout the state. We have assigned the duties. The counting will take place immediately after the voting ends.” He said that in the case of a repoll, the commission may change the date and time for the counting of votes.