As many as 11,584 candidates are in the fray for 5,362 posts of panch, 6,370 candidates for 1,550 posts of sarpanch and 2,877 for 750 posts of member panchayat samiti in the third phase of the general elections to Panchayati Raj Institutions to be conducted in 36 blocks of Haryana on January 24.
Haryana State Election Commissioner Rajeev Sharma on Thursday said that 10,316 candidates have already been elected unanimously for the post of panch, 95 for sarpanch and 30 for member panachayat samiti.
He said that during the third phase, polling would be conducted between 7.30 am and 4 pm. A total of 27,30,884 voters are eligible to cast their ballots in 5,230 polling stations in the third phase.
Sharma said that 42,035 nominations were received for the third phase, of which 1,074 were rejected and 40,961 nominations were found valid.
He added that 9,689 nominations were withdrawn and 450 seats, including one each of sarpanch and member panchayat samiti, and 448 of panch, remained vacant.
The State Election Commissioner said that police authorities have been asked to deploy extra police force in 1,021 polling booths identified as hyper-sensitive and 1,154 as sensitive in order to maintain law and order and ensure that polling takes place peacefully during the third phase.
More than 85 per cent polling was recorded in the second phase of Haryana’s panchayat election held on January 17 while the first phase had recorded 85 per cent voter turnout.
As per the State Election Commission, the average age of those elected as Sarpanch in these polls is 34 years. As many as 1061 female sarpanches have been elected in the first phase of these elections while 810 female sarpanches have been elected in the second phase.