UP Panchayat Elections 2021: Voting begins for 2nd phase amid COVID-19 surge

Voting for the second phase of Panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh begun at 7 am on Monday morning and will continue till 6 pm.

Shivani
Published on: 19 April 2021 4:24 AM GMT
UP Panchayat Elections 2021: Voting begins for 2nd phase amid COVID-19 surge
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UP Panchayat Elections (Social Media)

Voting for the second phase of Panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh begun at 7 am on Monday morning and will continue till 6 pm. More than three crore voters are eligible to cast their vote across 20 districts, including Lucknow, Gautam Buddh Nagar and Varanasi in this phase of the three-tier rural elections, held in the shadow of a record surge in Covid-19 cases in Uttar Pradesh. The polls are being held for the posts of members of zila panchayats, and kshetra panchayats.

UP Panchayat Elections:

"We have made all arrangements to ensure free and fair elections with full compliance to Covid protocol through 2,31,748 poll staff," said state election commissioner Manoj Kumar. The first phase on April 21 saw 71% voting.

All voters were required to wear face masks, sanitise their hands and ensure social distancing, as per the Covid-19 guidelines issued by the state election commission (SEC) in late March. Polling booths will be sanitised and voters and polling staff will be thermally screened.

The commission had earlier banned more than five people from accompanying a candidate during the door-to-door campaigning for the polls. UP registered the highest single-day rise in Covid-19 cases as well as fatality count, with the disease claiming 129 more lives, while 30,596 fresh cases pushed its Covid-19 tally to 8,51,620 on Sunday.

Muzaffar Nagar, Baghpat, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bijnor, Amroha, Badaun, Etah, Mainpuri, Kannauj, Etawah, Lalitpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Lucknow, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sultanpur, Gonda, Maharajganj, Varanasi and Azamgarh are voting in this phase.

The polling for the third and the last phase will be held on April 26 and 29. Counting of votes is scheduled to start on May 2.

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Shivani

Shivani

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