First phase of Gram Panchayat polls in Telangana peaceful, counting underway

Hyderabad, Dec 11 (PTI) The first phase of the election to 3,834 Gram Panchayats concluded peacefully in Telangana on Thursday and the counting of votes was underway.

Amid elaborate security arrangements made by police, the polling was held peacefully, Additional DGP (Law and Order) Mahesh M Bhagwat told PTI.

The balloting exercise began at 7 AM and came to an end at 1 PM. The counting of votes began thereafter.

The process of collating data on the percentage of polling was in progress, Telangana State Election Commission (SEC) sources said.

Over 56 lakh voters were eligible to exercise their franchise in the election.

Around 13,000 Sarpanch candidates are in the fray, while 65,455 nominees are contesting for 27,628 wards, officials said.

A release said unanimous elections took place in 396 gram panchayats.

Webcasting was conducted in over 3,000 gram panchayats to ensure real-time monitoring of the polling process.

Extensive security arrangements have been made for polling. All polling stations have been classified as either critical or normal, with police deployment based on the sensitivity and vulnerability of each location.

Telangana State Election Commission on November 25 announced a three-phase schedule for gram panchayat elections to be held on December 11, 14 and 17.

Following the recent bypoll to Jubilee Hills assembly constituency which the ruling Congress won, the Gram Panchayat elections are seen as a test of the popularity of the Congress, BRS and BJP.

Owing to legal hurdles surrounding the Congress government's move to provide 42 per cent reservation to Backward Classes in local bodies, the Telangana government on November 17 decided to conduct elections only for gram panchayats, deferring polls for other rural local bodies, including Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) members. PTI SJR VVK SJR KH