Telangana to begin first phase of gram panchayat polls on Dec 11

Hyderabad, Dec 10 (PTI) Over 56 lakh voters in Telangana will decide the fate of around 13,000 Sarpanch candidates in 3,834 gram panchayats in the first phase of rural local body polls on Thursday.

State Election Commissioner I Rani Kumudini said on Wednesday that 65,455 candidates are in the fray for 27,628 wards where polling will be held.

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

Webcasting will be conducted in over 3,000 gram panchayats to ensure real-time monitoring of the polling process, according to a release.

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.

Adequate security will also be in place at counting centres, where votes will be counted immediately after polling concludes, it said.

Enforcement teams have seized cash, liquor, drugs, precious metals, and other inducements worth Rs 8.20 crore during the ongoing election process. A total of 229 FIRs have been registered for violations of the Model Code of Conduct.

To further strengthen monitoring, 54 inter-state border check posts have been set up along Telangana’s borders with Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.

These check posts are functioning round-the-clock to prevent the illegal movement of cash, liquor, weapons, and other materials, the release said.

The 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 the Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency, the elections are being seen as a test of popularity for major parties—ruling Congress, BJP, and BRS—even though the polls are conducted on a non-party basis.

In the first phase, polling will be held from 7 am to 1 pm on Thursday, with counting beginning at 2 pm and results declared after the completion of counting.

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 SSK