Ghaziabad goes to polls on November 26, more than 13.5 lakh to vote

The seat of mayor, this time, is reserved for women candidates.

The Ghaziabad district’s civic body polls will be held in the second phase of elections, on November 26, as per the schedule announced by the state Election Commission (EC) on Friday.

To ensure smooth polls, the district will require nearly 14,000 employees. (Sakib Ali/HT File)

Over 13.5 lakh voters will exercise their franchise for choosing 100 councillors. Also, the post of mayor is reserved for a woman.

The municipal corporation area, comprising Kavi Nagar, Indirapuram, Vaishali, Vasundhara, Kaushambi, Delta colonies, Rajendra Nagar and Lajpat Nagar, among others, was earlier restricted to 80 wards. The notification for the addition of 20 more wards was issued by the state government earlier this year.

“With the issue of the notification, the Election Code of Conduct is already in place and no new work will be initiated. The polling in the corporation’s jurisdiction will be done through Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs),” said Ritu Maheshwari, the district election officer.

“The voters’ list will also be finalised soon,” she said.

The seat of mayor, this time, is also reserved for women candidates, according to a recent notification by the state government. Previously, Damyanti Goyal of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had held the post of mayor.

The EC officials on Friday said that the Uttar Pradesh civic polls 2017 will be held in three phases — November 22, November 26 and November 29.

This is the first election for the BJP since Yogi Adityanath assumed the office of the chief minister after a majority win in the assembly elections.

After the announcement of the poll schedule, officials of the Ghaziabad administration have already started the groundwork and started removing unauthorised posters, banners and other publicity material of political parties. A major drive was taken up in Khoda Nagar Palika area. The Khoda locality was declared a Nagar Palika last year and will also be going to polls, with an estimated 1.44 lakh voters.

Parties such as Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP had started the selection process for the candidates for the 100 wards even before the announcement.

After the municipal corporation area, the second highest voters, more than 3.9 lakh, are based in Loni, who will be electing councillors for the Loni Nagar Palika.