Second round of voting underway for UP panchayat elections: All you need to know

To ensure smooth conduct of the panchayat elections, the state Election Commission has deployed thousands of poll officials.

With more than 32 million voters expected to exercise their franchise, polling for the second round of three-tier panchayat elections got underway in Uttar Pradesh on Monday. The voting began at around 7am for the 20 districts, including the state capital of Lucknow and Varanasi, and will continue till 6pm amid the raging coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. Apart from Lucknow and Varanasi, polling will be held in Amroha, Azamgarh, Etawah, Etah, Kannauj, Gonda, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Budaun, Baghpat, Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Mainpuri, Maharajganj, Lakhimpur Kheri, Lalitpur and Sultanpur districts.

Officials carry ballot boxes to polling stations ahead of the second phase of Uttar Pradesh panchayat elections, in Lucknow. (PTI)

For the 787 posts of members of zila panchayats, there are 11,483 candidates. The first round of voting took place on April 15, an average of 71 per cent of people exercised their electoral to elect their candidates. The third and fourth phases will witness polling on April 26 and April 29 respectively. The votes will be counted on May 2.

To ensure smooth conduct of the panchayat elections, the state Election Commission has deployed thousands of poll officials. "We have made all arrangements to ensure free and fair elections with full compliance of the Covid protocol through 2,31,748 poll staff," state election commissioner Manoj Kumar said.

As the voting is taking place in the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, voters are asked to wear face masks around the polling booth area and at the time of voting. Polling booths are also constantly being sanitised for voters. They are also being thermal scanned before entering the polling booth.

Here is all you need to know about the polling:

1) For the 19,653 seats of kshetra panchayats, as many as 85,232 candidates are in the fray.

2) As far as the gram panchayats are concerned, there are 1,21,906 candidates for 14,897 posts. For the gram panchayat wards, there are as many as 1,30,305 candidates for 1,87,781 posts.

3) The candidates will contest on "free symbols" given by the Election Commission (EC).

4) Voters will mandatorily have to wear masks and maintain social distancing at the polling booths. Instructions have also been issued to make circles maintaining a distance of six feet between the voters standing in the queue.

5) As many as 23 Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and PCS (Provincial Civil Service) officers are also in Uttar Pradesh as observers to ensure free and fair polls.