Voting underway for 2nd part of UP panchayat polls

Voting for the second part of the Uttar Pradesh panchayat polls is underway with greater than 3.48 lakh candidates within the fray for over 2.23 lakh posts in 20 districts.
Polling shall be held until 6 pm on Monday and over 3.23 crore voters are eligible to train their franchise.
In the second of the 4 part election, polling is being held in Lucknow, Varanasi, Amroha, Azamgarh, Etawah, Etah, Kannauj, Gonda, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Budaun, Baghpat, Bijnor, Muzaffarnagar, Mainpuri, Maharajganj, Lakhimpur Kheri, Lalitpur and Sultanpur districts.
For the 787 posts of member of zila panchayat, there are 11,483 candidates and for the 19,653 seats of kshetra panchayat, as many as 85,232 candidates are within the fray.

As far because the gram panchayats are involved, there are 1,21,906 candidates for 14,897 posts and for the gram panchayat wards, there are as many as 1,30,305 candidates for 1,87,781 posts.
The candidates are contesting on ‘free symbols’ given by the Election Commission.
More than 2.31 lakh ballot officers have been deployed by the State Election Commission (SEC) for a clean conduct of the panchayat polls.
In the primary part of the polls, which was held on April 15, a mean polling proportion of 71 was recorded.
The 2015 panchayat polls had registered a polling proportion of 72.11, in line with the SEC.
In view of the coronavirus state of affairs, the SEC had stated final month that no more than 5 individuals can be allowed to accompany a candidate throughout door-to-door campaigning for the panchayat elections.
Additional Election Commissioner Ved Prakash Verma stated three-member groups have been shaped underneath the extra district magistrates to make sure that the directives issued by the SEC have been being adopted.
At the district stage, the chief medical officers have been made the nodal officers and stress has been laid on COVID-19 prevention.
Voters will mandatorily must put on masks and keep social distancing on the polling cubicles. Instructions have additionally been issued to make circles sustaining a distance of six toes between the voters standing within the queue.

Verma stated the COVID-19 norms would even be adopted throughout the counting of votes and private protecting tools (PPE) kits can be organized in line with the necessities.

The Allahabad High Court had requested the Uttar Pradesh authorities to conclude the panchayat election course of by May 25.