Ahead of the panchayat elections in Tripura, the ruling BJP has won over 5,500 (83 per cent) of the 6,646 seats unopposed in the three-tier rural body polls, officials said on Friday.
The Uttarakhand Assembly on Wednesday unanimously passed a bill barring people with more than two children from contesting panchayat polls and also making minimum educational qualifications mandatory for rural election candidates.
The voting will be held from 8 am to 4 pm on Sunday and counting of votes will take place after the conclusion of polling. As many as 13,276 sarpanchs and 83,831 panchs will be elected for 13,276 villages.
According to the Chief Electoral Officer, J&K, Shaleen Kabra, 361 polling stations have been categorised as 'hypersensitive' in this phase. Of these, 171 are in the Kashmir division and 190 in the Jammu division.
A total of 86,340 personnel will be deputed on election duty with 40 to 50 observers to ensure smooth and peaceful conduct of the polls at the 17,268 polling booths, he said.
Nearly 50 per cent votes were polled till the closing time of 3 pm but the exact figure would be known late in the evening as there were still long queues of voters at several polling stations, State Election Commission (SEC) sources said.
Braving the cold weather, voters were seen queuing outside polling stations in both Jammu division and the Kashmir valley.
Jammu and Kashmir panchayat polls: 71.3% voter turnout recorded in 4th phase
Voter turnout in the first phase on November 17 was 74.1 per cent. In the second phase on November 20, 71.1 per cent and in the third phase on November 24, it was 75.2.
Prithvi Raj, a PhD in botany, is a sarpanch candidate from the Loharna-A panchayat in Kishtwar. Mansoor Hussain, a masters-degree holder in political science and English, is a sarpanch candidate from the Loharna-B panchayat.
"The notification for the first phase of panchayat polls will be issued on Tuesday and the elections will take place in nine phases," Jammu and Kashmir's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Shaleen Kabra told reporters in Srinagar.
Poster pasted in Nowhatta under the name of Divisional Commander of Hizb asks all those participating in the elections to withdraw and announce the decision in local mosques within 10 hours or face death.
It is pertinent to mention here that on Monday the separatist groups appealed to the people to boycott the upcoming Panchayat and urban local body polls in the state.
“An election which won't see people's participation is considered to be an election by Centre, what can we say? We haven't asked people to not participate or boycott the elections, we have just said that our party won't take part in it,” Abdullah said.
Addressing reporters after the party meeting, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said they will not contest the polls as the prevailing situation was not favourable.
While the urban local body polls are slated for the first week of October, the Panchayat elections are scheduled to be held in November-December this year.
Massive clashes were reported from Howrah and North Dinajpur, Itahar and Daspara.
On August 23, replacing N N Vohra, he took oath as the 13th governor of J&K.
Speaking to reporters at the state secretariat in Kolkata, she said the three parties had deliberately resorted to a false propaganda.
The TMC had filed more nominations than the number of seats in all the three tiers.
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