VIJAYAWADA: The second phase of gram panchayat elections in Andhra Pradesh will be held on Saturday to elect 2,786 sarpanches and 20,817 ward members. There are 7,507 sarpanch candidates and 44,876 ward members in fray, as 539 sarpanches and 12,604 ward members have been elected unanimously.
State Election Commission has set up 29,304 polling stations for voters to exercise their franchise. Of them, 5,480 are considered sensitive and 4,181 hypersensitive. Authorities have arranged 18,387 big, 8,351 medium and 24,034 small ballot boxes at the various polling booths.
As part of anti-Covid-19 measures, authorities have arranged for face masks, hand sanitisers, thermal scanners and hand gloves at all polling stations. PPE kits have also been arranged for voters infected with Coronavirus to wear before exercising their franchise. Virus-affected people will be allowed to vote just one hour before closure of polling for the day.
Police are keeping a close tab for avoiding any untoward incidents during the second phase of polling, which will be held from 6:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. In agency areas under influence of Maoists, polling will close by 1:30 p.m.
Counting of votes will start on the same day from 4:00 p.m. and results will be out by late night.
The state government has requested all voters to express their democratic spirit by participating in the second phase of gram panchayat polls in large numbers.
Polling will be held in all 13 districts of the state. In Srikakulam, it will be in 10 mandals of Tekkali and Palakonda revenue divisions, at Vizianagaram , it will be in 15 mandals of Parvathipuram; 10 mandals in Narsipatnam of Visakhapatnam district, 14 mandals in Rajamahendravaram and Ramachandrapuram of East Godavari; 12 mandals in Kovvur of West Godavari, nine mandals in Gudiwada of Krishna; 11 mandals in Narasaraopeta of Guntur, 17 mandals in Markapur and Kandukur of Prakasam, 10 mandals of Atmakur in Nellore, 13 mandals in Nandyal and Kurnool of Kurnool district, 19 mandals of Dharmavaram and Kalyandurg in Anantapur; 12 mandals of Kadapa, and 17 mandals of Madanapalle in Chittoor district.
