Rajasthan: Zila Parishad, Panchayat Samiti polls to be held in four phases from November 23

Voting for Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections will be held in 21 districts of Rajasthan in four phases from November 23 to December 5, the State Election Commission announced on Saturday.

The counting of votes will be taken up on December 8, it said.

State Election Commissioner P S Mehra said the first phase of voting for Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti elections will be held in 21 districts on November 23, second on November 27, third on December 1 and fourth on December 5.

The elections will be held in Ajmer, Churu, Nagaur, Banswara, Dungarpur, Pali, Barmer, Hanumangarh, Pratapgarh, Bhilwara, Jaisalmer, Rajsamand, Bikaner, Jalore, Sikar, Bundi, Jhalawar, Tonk, Chittorgarh, Jhunjhunu and Udaipur, he said.

The elections are not being held in the remaining 12 districts of the state as the delimitation of municipalities is pending before court, he added.

There are over 21.41 crore voters in these 21 districts. A total of 636 Zila Parishad members and 4,371 Panchayat Samiti members will be elected, Mehra said.

He said the election notification will be issued on November 4. With this, the process of filing nomination papers will begin. Candidates can file nominations till 3 pm on November 9.

Scrutiny of nomination papers will be taken up on November 10, while names can be withdrawn till November 11. After the withdrawal of nominations, the allocation of election symbols and the list of candidates will be published, he added.

With the announcement of the election schedule, the model code of conduct comes into immediate effect in the concerned constituencies and will remain in force till the end of the election process, the commission said.