Telangana Panchayat polls: 25,654 nominations filed for Sarpanches, 82,276 for ward members

Over 25,000 nominations for Sarpanch posts and more than 82,000 for Ward Member posts were filed for the first phase of Telangana’s gram panchayat elections. Polling will be held across 4,236 panchayats, while the SEC is monitoring reports of forced unanimous elections.

Hyderabad: A total of 25,654 nominations were filed for Sarpanch posts and 82,276 nominations for Ward Member posts in the first phase of Gram Panchayat elections scheduled for December 11.

The filing of nominations, which began on Thursday, ended on Saturday. In several places, candidates stood in long queues to submit their papers on the final day.

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The first phase of polling will be held in 4,236 panchayats and 37,440 wards in 189 mandals across the State.

Suryapet district received the highest number of Sarpanch nominations, with 1,387 filed for 159 villages. Vikarabad district saw 1,383 nominations filed in 262 panchayats, followed by 1,239 in Mahabubabad district.

For ward members, Rangareddy recorded the highest number with 4,540 nominations filed for 1,530 wards, followed by Vikarabad, which saw 4,379 nominations for 2,198 wards.

The last date for withdrawal of nominations is December 3. Officials expect considerable activity on that day, given the large number of contestants. Many panchayats have already elected Sarpanches unanimously.

The State Election Commission has directed District Collectors to closely monitor panchayats that reported unanimous elections. In cases where unanimous elections were found to be forced, the Commission said it would withhold the results.