6,304 in fray for eighth phase today

Tribune News Service

Jammu, December 7

The stage is set for the penultimate phase of the nine-phase panchayat polls on Saturday. As many as 6,304 candidates are in the fray for 2,338 sarpanch and panch seats in nine districts.

According to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), J&K, Shaleen Kabra, 43 sarpanches and 681 panches have been elected unopposed in the eight phase. He said the polling would take place for 331 sarpanch and 2,007 panch seats.

The electorate for the sarpanch constituencies is 5,15,121 and for the panch constituencies, it is 4,19,775, the CEO said.

As many as 2,633 polling stations have been set up — 550 in the Valley and 2,083 in the Jammu division. Of them, 361 have been categorised hypersensitive — 171 in Kashmir and 190 in the Jammu division.

There will be no voting in Pulwama, Shopian and Kulgam districts of south Kashmir due to non-availability of candidates for the sarpanch and panch seats.

“There were a total of 63 sarpanch seats and 503 panch constituencies in the three districts against which a single nomination was received for 17 sarpanch and 41 panch seats and they were elected unopposed. For the remaining 44 sarpanch and 462 panch segments, no nomination was received,” sources said.

The voting will take place from 8 am to 2 pm and the state government has declared a holiday in all poll-bound blocks.