The first phase of Panchayat elections will start in nine of the 22 districts of Haryana with polls for zila parishads and panchayat samitis to be held on October 30, and for sarpanches and panches on November 2.

The nine districts to go to polls in the first of the three-phase elections are Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Kaithal, Mahendergarh, Nuh, Panchkula, Panipat and Yamunanagar.

Polling will be conducted from 7 am to 6 pm, an official said, adding EVMs will be used for sarpanches, panchayat samiti, and zila parishad. For panches, ballot papers will be used. 

Haryana State Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh had earlier said 133 sarpanches and 17,158 panches have been unanimously elected in nine districts of the state ahead of the November 2 polls. Singh had said 56 candidates have been unanimously elected for the panchayat samitis. In the first phase, the ruling BJP is contesting for zila parishads in three districts of Panchkula, Yamunanagar and Nuh, a state party leader said.

The main opposition Congress is not contesting any of the elections —panch, sarpanch, block samiti members and zila parishad members, on the party symbol. In the first phase, 34,371 candidates are in the fray for the posts of panch, sarpanch and member, panchayat samiti and zila parishads. Of them, 19,175 are men and 15,196 women.

In Saturday polls, booths which are sensitive are 1,273 while 1,651 are hypersensitive, the election official said. The total eligible voters for all the three phases of panchayat polls are 1.20 crore with more than 56 lakh women. There are a total of 6,220 gram panchayats, 143 panchayat samitis, and 22 zila parishads.

Singh had earlier said that Haryana has 22 Zila parishads, comprising 411 members. ''The members will in turn elect the 22 zila parishad chiefs. The state has 143 panchayat samitis, comprising 3,081 members, who will further elect their respective president,'' Singh had said.

There are 6,220 gram panchayats in the state, where 61,993 panches will be elected and all 6,220 sarpanches will be chosen directly by villagers. While the results of the sarpanches and panches will be declared at the end of voting of each phase, the results of zila parishads and panchayat samiti members will be declared on November 27 after completion of all three phases of polling.

In the second phase, voting will be held on November 9 for Zilla Parishad and Panchayat Samiti members and polling for Sarpanches and Panches will be held on November 12 in Ambala, Charkhi Dadri, Gurugram, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Rewari, Rohtak, Sirsa and Sonipat districts. The third and final phase of polling in the remaining districts of Hisar, Palwal, Faridabad and Fatehabad to elect members of zila parishad and panchayat samitis will be held on November 22 and that of sarpanches and panches of gram panchayats on November 25.

As many as 38,000 polling personnel, including Returning Officers, Additional ROs, supervisory staff, presiding officers, polling officers, and security staff will be put on duty for a smooth conduct of these elections, officials said.

For the conduct of elections in a free, fair, transparent and peaceful manner, the State Election Commission will appoint senior IAS officers as 'Election Observers' (General), senior IPS officers as 'Police Observers' for the maintenance of law and order, and senior officers of excise and taxation department as 'Expenditure Observers' across Panchayati Raj institutions up for polls.

These Observers will keep reporting to the State Election Commission from time to time.