The rural electorate from 70 blocks of 22 districts of Jharkhand will decide the fate of 35,469 candidates in the poll fray for Panchayati Raj Institution representatives as state enters the third phase of three-tier panchayat polls 2015 this Saturday.
The voters will elect contenders for a total of 10,738 positions in rural government, out of which 8161are to be Ward Members, 1,128 for Mukhiyas, 1,312 for Panchayat Samiti members and 137 for Zila Parishad members. Around 5,685 candidates contending in Phase 3, 5586 of them being ward members, have already been elected unopposed for these positions.
To be conducted across 14,098 polling stations in 1,142 panchayats, the third phase is expected to record yet another record voter turn-out. 3,813 polling booths set up for third phase have been classified as hyper-sensitive, whereas 3,603 are sensitive.
A total of 44,63,579 voters, out of which 23,23,644 are men and 21,39,935 women, will exercise their franchise in the third phase.
Polling staff and security personnel will leave for their designated cluster points on Friday, and will continue for their respective polling booths from thereon. Adequate security arrangements have been made considering the threat of Naxals interfering with the democratic process.
A total of 38,109 have been deployed as security detail of the polling booths. 21,799 security forces from the state police along with 16,360 from external sources including para-military forces, CID and others will be responsible for the securing the polling booths in the hinterland of the state.
Apart from them, 130 companies of Central Armed Police Forces, 9360 strong, will also be available in the districts to be covered under Phase 3.