Telangana Congress wins majority Gram Panchayats in third phase

Hyderabad, Dec 17 (IANS) Telangana’s ruling party Congress continued its good performance in Gram Panchayat elections by bagging the majority of Sarpanch in the third and final phase on Wednesday.

Out of 4,159 Gram Panchayats notified for the third phase of polls, Congress-backed candidates won 2,208 Gram Panchayats as per the results announced till 10 p.m.

Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) once again gave a tough fight to the ruling party to win 1,145 Sarpanch posts. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was a distant third with only 239 seats. Independents and others bagged 488 seats.

Out of the total 12,727 Gram Panchayats for which the State Election Commission (SEC) issued notifications in all three phases, Congress-backed candidates have won 6,794 Gram Panchayats. BRS stood second with 3,503 Gram Panchayats. BJP-backed candidates could win only 697 Gram Panchayats while independents and others secured 1,651 seats.

Results of 51 Gram Panchayats were awaited, while elections could not be held in 29 villages due to various reasons.

Polling was held on Wednesday for 3,752 Sarpanch posts and 28,410 Ward Members in 182 mandals across 31 districts.

Around 12,652 candidates were in the fray for Sarpanch posts, while as many as 75,725 contested forward membership.

Around 53 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise at 36,483 polling stations across the state.

The polling, which began at 7 a.m., continued till 1 p.m. About 81 per cent polling was recorded.

Counting of votes was taken up from 2 p.m.

The State Election Commission had issued a notification for 4,159 Gram Panchayats for polling in the third phase. Sarpanches were elected unanimously for 394 villages, while no nominations were filed for 11 Gram Panchayats. Elections for two Panchayats could not be held due to court orders.

Over 80 per cent polling was recorded in the first two phases of elections held on December 11 and 14.

Last month, the SEC issued a notification for elections to 12,728 Sarpanch posts and 1,12,242 Ward Member posts.

A total of 1.66 crore votes in rural areas are eligible to cast their votes in these elections.

Elections for Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs), Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs) and municipal corporations will be held after the High Court's final orders on 42 per cent reservation for Backward Classes (BCs).

In October, the High Court struck down a government order providing 42 per cent reservation for BCs in local bodies but allowed conduct of the elections with a 50 per cent cap on total reservation for all sections.

--IANS

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