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Voting for the second phase of the Uttar Pradesh panchayat elections began on Monday, 19 April, with more than 3.48 lakh candidates in the fray for over 2.23 lakh posts across 20 districts.
Polling began at 7 am and will end at 6 pm on Monday with over 3.23 crore voters eligible to exercise their franchise.
The second phase assumes significance as state capital Lucknow and Varanasi will go to polls in this round.
For the 787 posts of members of Zila panchayats, there are 11,483 candidates.
For the gram panchayat wards, there are as many as 1,30,305 candidates for 1,87,781 posts.
The candidates will contest on "free symbols" given by the Election Commission (EC).
The State Election Commission (SEC) spokesman said that more than 2.31 lakh poll officials have been deployed for a smooth conduct of the panchayat polls.
In the first phase of the polls, which was held on 15 April, 71 percent polling was recorded.
The 2015 panchayat polls had registered a polling percentage of 72.11, according to the SEC.
In view of the COVID pandemic situation, the SEC had said that not more than five people would be allowed to accompany a candidate during door-to-door campaigning for the panchayat elections.
Additional Election Commissioner Ved Prakash Verma said three-member teams were formed under the Additional District Magistrates to ensure that the directives issued by the SEC were being followed.
At the district level, the Chief Medical Officers have been made the nodal officers and stress has been laid on following COVID protocols.
Verma said the COVID norms would also be followed during the counting of votes and personal protective equipment (PPE) kits would be arranged according to the requirements.
The Allahabad High Court had asked the Uttar Pradesh government to conclude the panchayat election process by 25 May.
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