The campaigning for the fourth and last phase of panchayat polls in the state will end on Tuesday as polling for kshetra and district panchayat posts would be held on October 29.
Campaigning has picked up after a dull of almost 10 days because of dusehra, durga puja and muharram. Official sources said that 11,785 candidates are in the fray for the 843 district panchayat posts spread over in 190 blocks. In Kshetra Panchayat 97,357 candidates would be trying their luck for 18,439 posts.
In the last phase, around 2.71 crore voters will exercise their franchise at 42,513 booths. The polling will be held from 0700 hrs to 1700 hrs and the counting of votes would be done on November 1.
Barring Gautam Buddha Nagar, district polling would be held in all the districts.
State Election Commissioner (SEC) S K Agarwal said all preparations for peaceful polling have been completed. By and large the campaigning too was peaceful, he said
“Over three lakh policemen would be deployed for peaceful conduct of election which includes 81,068 district civil police, 4676 inter district civil police, 36,741 police forces from training centers along with 93,000 home guards, and 1.05 lakh village chowkidars,” he said adding 139 companies of PAC would also be deployed.
UP panchayat polls is the largest rural elections of the world with electoral college comprising 11.36 crore voters. During last three phases total vote percentage was 62.8 per cent which was by and large peaceful.
The first phase of polling was held on October 9, second on October 13 and third on October 17.
The polling for the village pradhan would be held after completion of the Kshetra and District panchayat polls in December.