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Hyderabad, Oct 9 (IANS) The process of election to rural local bodies in Telangana has begun with the State Election Commission issuing notices for the first phase of voting on Thursday.
Nominations for the first phase of elections for Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTC), Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTC) will be received from Thursday. Returning officers issue notice for nomination.
The first phase of voting to be held on October 23 will include 2,963 MPTCs and 292 ZPTCs.
Nominations will be received till October 11. The nominations will be scrutinized the next day while nominations can be withdrawn till October 15.
Although petitions challenging the 42 per cent reservation for Backward Classes (BCs) are being heard in the High Court, the State Election Commission is going ahead with the election process.
According to the schedule announced on September 29, elections for ZPTCs, MPTCs and Gram Panchayats will be held in five phases in October-November.
MPTC and ZPTC elections will be held in two phases on October 23 and 27, while elections for gram panchayats will be held in three phases on October 31, November 4 and November 8.
According to State Election Commissioner Rani Kumudini, more than 1.67 crore voters are eligible to cast their votes in these elections.
Counting of votes cast in ZPTCs and MPTCs will be done on November 11, while counting will be done after polling in Gram Panchayats.
Elections will be held in 565 mandals of 31 districts. Voting will be held for 565 ZPTC, 5,749 MPTC, 12,733 Gram Panchayat and 1,12,288 wards.
Elections will not be held for 14 MPTCs, 27 gram panchayats and 246 wards due to stay orders issued by courts in various cases.
Voting will be conducted through ballot boxes and ballot papers. The ballot boxes have been borrowed from Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh.
The State Election Commissioner said the number of voters is 1,67,03,168 which includes 81,65,894 males, 85,36,770 females and 504 others.
–IANS
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