After withdrawal of nominations, a total of 22,669 candidates have been declared unopposed in the three tier Panchayati Raj elections in Uttarakhand. As per the data of State Election Commission (SEC), a total of 5,802 nomination papers for various posts of the Panchayati Raj elections in 12 districts of the State were rejected after scrutiny of the nomination papers.
Similarly 3,680 candidates withdrew from the contest which effectively left 36,227 candidates for various posts of three tier Panchayati Raj system in the electoral fray. Incidentally for the post of member Village Panchayat member where only 28,951 candidates showed interest to contest election for a staggering 55,572 posts 27,872 nominations were found valid.
A total of 20,656 candidates were declared unopposed for these posts. For the posts of village Pradhans 24,366 candidates had filed nomination papers for 7,485 posts.
For these posts 2,168 candidates withdrew from the contest while nomination papers of 793 were cancelled. After the last date of the withdrawal of names, 1,615 candidates were declared unopposed for the post of Pradhans while 17,211 candidates are still in fray. For 2,984 posts of member block Panchayat 8,365 candidates are left in they fray.
For these posts a total of 374 candidates were declared unopposed after withdrawal of nomination of 817 candidates while 1,202 nominations were cancelled after scrutiny. For the coveted post of member district Panchayat 5,043 candidates are in fray for 356 posts. Incidentally, ninecandidates have been elected unopposed after 109 nomination papers were withdrawn and 232 were rejected on last day.
The Panchayat elections in 12 districts of the State would be held in three phases.
The voting for first phase would be held on October 5 while for second and third phase voting would be held on October 11 and 16 respectively. The counting of votes would be done on October 21 and the results are expected to be declared on the same day.