UP panchayat polls: Voting for 3rd phase begins today

The districts going to polls today are: Shamli, Meerut, Moradabad, Pilibhit, Kasganj, Firozabad, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Unnao, Amethi, Barabanki, Balrampur, Siddharthanagar, Deoria, Chandauli, Mirzapur, and Ballia

Voting for the third and penultimate phase of UP panchayat polls began at 7am on Monday, even as the state government, facing flak for going ahead with the elections amid the pandemic, issued a statement that it was only complying with an Allahabad high court order. The State Election Commission (SEC) said voting for the third phase with more than 352,000 candidates in the fray for over 214,000 seats across 20 districts of the state will end at 6pm.

Representational Image. (File photo)

The districts going to polls today are: Shamli, Meerut, Moradabad, Pilibhit, Kasganj, Firozabad, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Unnao, Amethi, Barabanki, Balrampur, Siddharthanagar, Deoria, Chandauli, Mirzapur, and Ballia.

In the first phase of the polls on April 15, the voter turnout was 71% and it rose to 73% in the second phase on April 19.

In the third phase today, there are 10,627 candidates for the posts of 746 members of zila panchayats. For the 18,530 posts of members of kshetra panchayats, there are 89,188 candidates. As many as 1,177,89 candidates are in the arena for 14,397 village panchayats. For 180,473 village panchayat wards, there are 134,510 candidates.

In view of the coronavirus situation, the SEC had said last month that not more than five people would be allowed to accompany a candidate during the door-to-door campaigning for the panchayat elections. Additional election commissioner Ved Prakash Verma said three-member teams were formed under the additional district magistrates to ensure that directives issued by the SEC were being followed.

With rising concern over panchayat polls amid the Covid’s intense second wave, chief minister Yogi Adityanath, at the Covid review meeting on Sunday, said: “Covid protocols must be implemented and adhered to strictly. There should be no unnecessary crowding anywhere. All polling parties must have masks, gloves, sanitisers and medical kits.”

The state government, facing flak for holding the polls amid pandemic, issued a statement on Sunday that panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh were being held in compliance with Allahabad high court orders. “It was in compliance of the high court order that the UP government had to go through panchayat polls despite Covid scare. It is noteworthy that these elections were due in December 2020 itself. However, due to pandemic, the reorganisation and delimitation of panchayats was delayed. The writ petitions and subsequent decision of the high court compelled the state government to hold the election,” the statement said.

For past some weeks, the state government has been facing criticism not only from the Opposition, but also from some of its own party members and legislators who demanded that the polls be cancelled.

Counting of votes and declaration of result for the four-phase election will take place on May 2.