Voting ends for GHMC election, UP legislative council & 2nd phase of DDC polls in Kashmir

Hyderabad:Polling for the much-hyped Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC)  to elect Corporators for 150 wards, and  involving an electorate of more than 74.67 lakh began  on Tuesday, amid tight security  arrangements.

The polling which began at 0700 hours will end at 1800 hours.The State Election Commission (SEC) has made elaborate arrangements by setting up over 9,101 polling stations and  manned by 36,404 polling personnel including 9,101 polling officers and 150 returning officers.

The SEC had deployed surveillance teams to ensure smooth polling. Of the 9,101 polling stations,  the SEC had identified 1439 polling stations  as sensitive, 1004 as hyper Sensitive and 257 critical. 

The voting being held by observing the COVID-19 safety norms.Voters without masks and photo identity cards were not being allowed into the polling stations and sanitisers were provided at entry and exit points of polling stations.

More than 50,000 security personnel were deployed to ensure smooth and incident-free polling.

In all,1,122 candidates including 150 nominees of the ruling TRS,149  of BJP,146 belonging to the Congress, 106 (TDP),51 (AIMIM) 17 (CPI),12 CPI (M), others recognized & regional  parties (76)  and 415 (Independents) are in the fray.

The SEC said  as some political parties had raised objections on Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), the polling being held with paper ballot which will be in white colour.

Repolling, if necessary will be held on December 3.The result will be announced on December 4.

In the 2016 GHMC election, the Ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) had won 99 seats followed by Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) 44  out of the  total 150 wards.

Polling begins for biennial polls to 11 seats of UP legislative council

Lucknow: Polling for the 11 seats of Uttar Pradesh legislative council biennial polls from the graduate and teachers constituencies commenced in a dull note on Tuesday morning.

The polling in these 11 seats commenced at 0800 hrs and will end at 1700 hrs. The counting of votes would be taken up on December 3.EC sources said that the polling started at a dull note and just few voters turned up in the morning.

A total of 12,69,817 voters are eligible to cast their franchise in the 5 graduate seats at 1808 polling booths while  2,06,335 voters would cast their votes for 6 teachers constituencies in 813 polling booths.    

A total of 199 candidates are in the fray from 5 graduate and 6 teachers constituencies spread out in the entire state. There are 114 candidates in the graduate seats and 85 in the teachers constituencies.

EC sources said there are 11 observers, one in each constituency to observe the fairness of the polls.

Besides there to maintain law and order, there are 952 sector magistrates, 413 zonal magistrates besides all the booths will have micro observers, one in each booth and it will be intensively video-graphed. 

The covid-19 protocol would be enforced during this polling with face mask, social distancing and hand washing would be compulsory. Every voter would be screened before entering the booth.

The seats where the biennial polls will be held are Lucknow division, Varanasi division, Agra division, Meerut division and Allahabad-Jhansi division of the graduate constituencies and Lucknow division, Varanasi division, Agra division, Meerut division, Bareilly-Moradabad division and Gorakhpur-Faizabad division of the teachers' constituencies.

These 11 seats fell vacant on May 6 last but due to Covid, the elections to these seats were delayed for 6 months.

There are 22 candidates in the fray from Agra graduate seat, 16 in Allahabad- Jhansi graduate seat, 24 in Lucknow Graduate seat, 30 in Meerut graduate seat and 22 in Varanasi graduate seat.      

Similarly, there are 16 candidates in Agra teachers seat, 15 in Bareilly- Moradabad teachers seat, 11 in Lucknow teachers seat, 15 in Meerut teachers seat and 12 in Varanasi teachers seat.

Ruling BJP which is contesting the polls for the first time has given candidates in 9 seats and will support independent candidates in 2 other seats. BJP is set to win the majority of the seats as per the political observers.

The BJP candidates are Er Avith Kumar Singh( Lucknow- Graduate), Kedarnath Singh ( Varanasi- Graduate), Manvendra Pratap Singh ( Agra- graduate), Dinesh Kumar Goel( Meerut- graduate), and Dr Yogesh Dutt Sharma( Allahabad-Jhansi graduate).

The other four BJP candidates of the teachers constituencies are Umesh Dwivedi (Lucknow), Dinesh Chandra Vasisth (Agra), Shrichand Sharma (Meerut) and Dr Hari Singh Dillon (Bareilly-Moradabad).

The Congress candidates are, Rajesh Dwivedi (Agra graduate), Jitendra Kumar (Teachers- Meerut), Ajay Kumar Singh (Allahabad-Jhansi graduate), Brajesh Kumar Singh (Graduate Lucknow), Sanjeev Singh (Varanasi- Graduate), Nagendra Dutt Tripathi (Gorakhpur - Faizabad teachers) and Dr Mehndi Hassan (Bareilly- Moradabad teachers).

Samajwadi Party candidates are, Dr Aseem (Agra), Shamshad Ali (Meerut), Ram Singh Rana (Lucknow), Ashutosh Sinha (Varanasi) and Dr Maan Singh (Allahabad- Jhansi), all for the graduate seats and Umashanker Choudhury Patel (Lucknow), Lal Bihar (Varanasi), Sanjay Kumar Mishra (Bareilly- Moradabad) Dharmendra Kumar (Meerut), Harendra Choudhury (Agra) and Awadhesh (Gorakhpur- Faizabad) for teachers constituencies.

Voting underway for 2nd phase of DDC polls in Kashmir, 196 candidates in fray

Srinagar:Voting is underway on Tuesday to decide the fate of 196 candidates contesting in 25 constituencies during the second phase of District Development Council (DDC) elections in Kashmir valley amid tight security arrangements.

Simultaneously, votes are also being polled for sarpanch bypolls in the second phase in the valley, which recorded 39.11 per cent polling in the first phase of DDC elections.

"As many as 321 candidates, including 196 from Kashmir division and 125 from Jammu division, are in the fray during the second phase of District Development Council (DDC) polls in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday," an official said.

He said there are a total 280 constituencies in UT of J&K (14 in each district), of which, voting will be conducted in 43 constituencies, including 25 from Kashmir Division and 18 from Jammu Division, from 0700 hrs to 14 hrs in phase II. 

Similarly, the sarpanch elections are underway in 83 constituencies and total 223 candidates, including 72 females, are contesting in phase II. "Panchs by-polls is also underway in 331 constituencies for which a total 709 candidates, including 157 females, are in fray," he said. 

He further said that 58 sarpanchs, including 29 females, and 804 panchs, including 256 females, have been elected unopposed.

Giving further details, he said that there are more than 57 lakh voters in J&K who eligible to cast their votes in the DDC polls. Of these, he said more than 7.95 lakh voters, including 406845 from Kashmir and 3,88,273 from Jammu, would use their right to vote in phase II. 

"Kashmir division has 4,06,845 voters, including 1,94,821 females, whereas Jammu division has 388273 electorate, including 183553 females," he said, adding 2142 polling stations, including 837 in Jammu division and 1305 in Kashmir division, have been set up to conduct the Phase II of the elections.

He said that special polling booths have also been created for Kashmiri Migrants at Jammu and Udhampur so that they can also participate in the election process.

State Election Commissioner, K K Sharma on Monday urged people to strictly follow the prescribed guidelines to curtail the spread of COVID-19, especially wearing face masks and maintaining social distance, during polling process. He also said that sanitizers, thermal scanner and face masks shall also be provided to the voters, in case they forget to carry their own face masks/ sanitizers. 

The DDC elections and Panchayat By-Polls 2020 are being held in eight phases from November 28 to December 19. The counting of votes shall be conducted on December 22.(UNI)