Haryana: 43 pc votes cast till 2 pm in polls for zila parishads, panchayat samitis

Nearly 43 per cent people had cast their votes by 2 pm on Sunday to elect members of zila parishads and panchayat samitis in nine districts of Haryana, officials said.

The first phase of panchayat polls is being 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 are over 49 lakh registered voters and 6,019 booths have been set up. The polling, which is underway from 7 am to 6 pm, is being held peacefully, officials said.

By 2 pm, Panchkula had recorded 50 per cent polling, Nuh 48 per cent, Yamunanagar 47 per cent, Bhiwani 38.6 per cent, Jhajjar 39.6 per cent, Jind 42.1 per cent, Kaithal 41.8 per cent, Mahendragarh 37.9 per cent while Panipat had seen 42.8 per cent voting.

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 polls 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 story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)