Panchayat elections in Rajasthan next month

Over 9,000 panchayats will go to the polls in Rajasthan next month, said an official here on Thursday. The elections to elect 9,171 sarpanches and 90,400 panches will be held in three phases on January 17, 22 and 29.

The polling will be held from 8 am to 5 pm and the counting will be held on the same day. As many as 34,525 polling booths had been set up for elections to 9,171 panchayats across 33 districts, said state Election Commissioner P S Mehra on Thursday.

He said EVM machines would be used for the election of sarpanches for the first time while the election of panches would be conducted through ballot papers. As many as 3.08 crore voters, including 14.7 crore women, will exercise their franchise in the elections.

The state government this time has abolished the condition of minimum educational qualification for sarpanches. As per the criteria set by the previous BJP government, the person from the general category wanting to contest for the sarpanch was required to be Class 8 pass.

For those belonging to the SC/ST category, the minimum educational qualification was Class 5 pass. The limit on election expenditure has been increased from Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000.