Rajasthan panchayat elections: Counting of votes underway in four districts

Counting of votes for panchayat samiti and zilla parishad elections in Rajasthan began at 11am today, 21 December. The State Election Commission (SEC) had postponed the vote counting timing by two hours on Monday, following cold waves and foggy weather conditions. According to chief electoral officer and SEC secretary Chitra Gupta, the timing for Tuesday’s vote counting has been changed from 9 am to 11 am. Elections for zilla pramukhs and pradhans were conducted in four districts — Karauli, Baran, Sri Ganganagar and Kota. Secretary Gupta directed the district election officers (DEOs) of all four districts to inform the candidates and political parties about the revised timing. The polls to elect 103 members of zilla parishad and 562 members of Panchayat Samiti were held in three phases on December 12, 15 and 19. As many as 2,251 candidates have been in the fray for the panchayat polls in the four districts. State Election Commissioner Prem Singh Mehra had earlier informed that 1,946 of the total candidates would contest for panchayat samiti elections while the remaining 305 candidates would contest for zilla parishad polls. In the first phase of elections, around 64.35 percent voters had exercised their franchise while in the second phase, 68.57 percent turnout was recorded. In the third phase, nearly 68.99 percent turnout was recorded in the districts that went to polls. The overall polling percentage was recorded at 67.25. The secretary further added that the code of conduct for panchayat elections in the four districts is effective till 24 December. As per reports, the elections for the panchayat samiti pradhan and zilla pramukh will be conducted on 23 December, while the up-zilla pramukh and up-pradhan polls will be held on 24 December. Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.