Jaipur: Rajasthan registered a turnout of 62.36 per cent in the first phase of the polling to elect Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad members in six districts of Rajasthan on Thursday, according to a state election commission official. The polling started at 7.30 am amid tight security arrangements at around 3500 booths in Bharatpur, Dausa, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Sawai Madhopur, and Sirohi districts. P S Mehra, State Election Commissioner said the polling was held peacefully and 62.36 per cent turnout was registered.
He said that Keru panchayat Samiti of Jodhpur recorded the highest voting percentage of 72.22. He added that the polling was conducted under Covid protocols and guidelines. The election is being held in three phases for seats of 200 Zila Parishad and 1,564 members of 78 panchayat Samiti. The elections are scheduled to start on Thursday at six districts. The second and third phases of polling will be held on August 29 and September 1 respectively, and the counting will take place on September 4. One Zila Parishad member and 26 panchayat Samiti members have already been elected unopposed.
In the first phase, 26.55 lakh people were eligible to vote. A total of 77,94,300 voters are registered in the six districts, of which 41.23 lakh are males and 36.71 lakh, females. Rajasthan has 33 Zila Parishad and 352 panchayat samitis. Of these, the elections in 21 districts were held in November-December last year.
The elections in the remaining 12 districts could not take place due to a High Court stay on the creation of 19 new municipalities in these districts as the area of Panchayati Raj Institutions was revised. After the litigation issue on the delimitation process was resolved in February, the state election commission finalised the voter’s lists for the six districts. The voter’s list in the remaining districts of Alwar, Baran, Dholpur, Karauli, Kota, and Ganganagar was also finalised recently and the elections will be held later.
(With Input from PTI)
