Haryana: Over 70 Per Cent Votes Cast In Zila Parishad, Panchayat Samiti Polls

The 1st phase of voting to elect members of Zila Parishad in Haryana began on Sunday. The 2nd phase will begin on November 9, & the 3rd on November 22. Final results will be declared on November 27.

Women show their inked fingers and identification cards after casting their votes in the first phase of Haryana panchayat elections, in Bhiwani

Over 70 per cent votes were polled on Sunday to elect members of zila parishads and panchayat samitis in nine districts of Haryana. This number is expected to go up as the data gets updated, officials said. The first phase of panchayat polls was held in 61 blocks of Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Kaithal, Mahendragarh, Nuh, Panchkula, Panipat and Yamunanagar to elect 1,278 panchayat samiti members and 175 zila parishad members.

There were over 49 lakh registered voters and 6,019 booths had been set up. The polling, held from 7 am to 6 pm, remained peaceful throughout, the officials said.

Panchkula recorded 77.8 per cent polling while 74.7 percent voted were polled in Yamunanagar, 71.8 per cent in Panipat, 71.9 in Nuh, 69.2 in Bhiwani, 66.2 in Jhajjar, 68.8 in Jind, 67.6 in Kaithal and 69.5 per cent in Mahendragarh.

The first phase voting to elect sarpanches and panches will be held on November 2.

Haryana State Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh had earlier said 133 sarpanches and 17,158 panches had been unanimously elected in nine districts ahead of these polls, while 56 candidates had been unanimously elected for panchayat samitis.

In the first phase, 34,371 candidates are in the fray for the posts of panches, sarpanches and members, panchayat samitis and zila parishads. Of them, 19,175 are men and 15,196 women.

Overall, there are 6,220 gram panchayats, 143 panchayat samitis and 22 zila parishads.

While the results of the polls for sarpanches and panches will be declared at the end of each phase of voting, those of elections to elect zila parishads and panchayat samiti members will be declared on November 27 after completion of all three phases.

The second phase voting -- November 9 to elect zila parishad and panchayat samiti members, and November 12 to pick sarpanches and panches -- will cover nine other districts.

The third and final phase of polling in the remaining districts to elect zila parishad and panchayat samiti members will be held on November 22 and elections to choose sarpanches and panches will be held on November 25.

(This report has been published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)