UP Panchayat Election : Polling on April 15, 19, 26 & 29, counting on May 02

Lucknow,  26 March (HS) :      The UP state Election Commission on Friday announced the polling dates for the three tier Panchayat Elections in Uttar Pradesh. The polling will be held in four phases on April 15, 19, 26 and 29 while the counting of votes will take place on May 02.

State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar told the media persons here today that the first phase of polling will be held on April 15 in 18 districts – Ghaziabad, Saharanpur, Rampur, Bareilly, Hathras, Agra, Kanpur Nagar, Jhansi, Mahoba, Prayagraj, Raebareli, Hardoi, Ayodhya, Shravasti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur, and Bhadohi. Nominations for the first phase will be filed on April 03 and 04 between 08 am and 05 pm, he said.

Manoj Kumar said that the 20 districts that will go into polling in the second phase on April 19 include  Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Gautam Budh Nagar, Bijnor, Amroha, Badaun, Etah, Mainpuri, Kannauj, Etawah, Lalitpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Lucknow, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sultanpur, Gonda, Maharajganj, Varanasi, and Azamgarh. Nomination papers for the second phase will be filed on April 07 and 08, he said.

The third phase polling scheduled to be held on April 26 in 20 districts- Shamli, Meerut, Moradabad, Pilibhit, Kasganj, Firozabad, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Unnao, Amethi, Barabanki, Balrampur, Siddharthnagar, Deoria, Chandauli, Mirzapur, and Ballia. Nominations for the third phase will take place on April 13 and 15.

He said that the fourth and final phase of voting will take place in 17 districts,  Bulandshahr, Hapur, Sambhal, Shahjahanpur, Aligarh, Mathura, Farrukhabad, Banda, Kaushambi, Sitapur, Ambedkar Nagar, Bahraich, Basti, Kushinagar, Ghazipur, Sonbhadra, and Mau on April 29. The nomination papers for the last phase will be filed on April 17 and 18.

The State Election Commissioner said that the CORONA guidelines would be followed during the entire election process. The district authorities have already been informed to this effect, he added.