The first phase of Gram Panchayat elections began across Telangana this morning. Polling started at 7 AM for 3,834 sarpanch seats and 27,628 ward member seats. Moreover, 56 lakh voters are expected to cast their votes at 37,562 polling stations. Officials plan to complete polling by 1 PM and announce results after counting begins at 2 PM. Soon after the results, ward members will meet to elect the deputy sarpanch by consensus.
Earlier, the election notification covered 4,236 sarpanch seats and 37,440 ward member seats. However, no nominations were filed for five sarpanch posts and 169 ward posts. Additionally, 396 sarpanch seats and 9,633 ward positions were already elected unanimously. One sarpanch seat and ten ward seats remain under High Court stay.
In this phase, 12,960 candidates are contesting for sarpanch posts, while 65,455 candidates are competing for ward member seats. Competition remains intense in several villages due to multiple candidates.
For smooth polling, the State Election Commission installed CCTV cameras at every polling station. Furthermore, they added webcasting in 3,461 sensitive polling centres. Nearly 50,000 civil police, 60 special platoons, and 2,000 fire and forest personnel are on duty. SEC Rani Kumudini urged voters to vote freely and peacefully.
