First phase of rural local body elections underway in Telangana

The first phase of polling in elections to Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC) and Mandal ParishadTerritorial Constituencies (MPTC) got underway in Telangana Monday.

The election is being held for 195 ZPTCs, for which 883 candidates, including 193 independents, are in the fray.

Officials said in the first phase, polling would be held for 2,097 MPTCs.

A total of 7,072 candidates are in the fray.

Polling began at 7 a.m and would conclude at 5 p.m, while in Left Wing Extremism (LWE)-affected areas, polling would end at 4 p.m, they said.

Unanimous elections had earlier been held for 69 MPTCs and two ZPTCs.

The Telangana State Election Commission had last month released the election schedule for 5,817 MPTCs and 539 ZPTCs and announced that the first phase polls would held on May 6, the second on May 10 and the third on May 14.

Around 1.56 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the elections to two upper tiers of local bodies.

The elections will be held through ballot and counting would be held on May 27, officials had earlier said.

After the ZPTC and MPTC polls, Mandal Praja Parishad and Zilla Praja Parishad (ZPP) members would be elected.

The assembly elections were held in December 2018 and the panchayat polls in January this year.

Elections to 17 Lok Sabha seats in the state were held on April 11.