AP Panchayat Elections: East Godavari district gears up for Phase I panchayat polls

Kakinada: The district authorities have made elaborate arrangements to conduct the first phase of panchayat elections in a peaceful manner scheduled for Tuesday.

District collector and District Electoral Officer D Muralidhar Reddy said that all arrangements have been made to conduct the gram panchayat elections in Kakinada and Peddapuram divisions in the first phase in East Godavari district. He said that the elections have been notified for 140 sarpanch seats in Kakinada division, while the election for 13 seats has been unanimous, with 345 candidates in the fray for the remaining 127 seats. He said that for 1,622 ward member posts in the division and the election was unanimous for 430 seats. About 2,650 candidates were contesting for the remaining 1,191 seats in the division. He said that notification has been issued for 226 sarpanch seats in Peddapuram division, while the election for 17 seats is unanimous, with 571 candidates contesting for the remaining 209 seats.

As many as 4,704 candidates are contesting for 2,478 ward member seats. Candidates were elected unanimously in 396 seats and polling will be held for the remaining 2,082 seats. He said that 916 candidates were contesting for a total of 336 sarpanch seats and 7,354 candidates for 3,273 ward member seats in Kakinada and Peddapuram divisions. He said that there are 10,61,529 voters in the 20 mandals in Kakinada and Peddapuram revenue divisions.

A total of 4,202 polling stations were set up and 124 Stage-1 returning officers, 514 Stage-2 returning officers, 13,790 polling officers and staff were recruited. As many as 72 zonal officers and 197 route officers have been appointed.

Besides election material, face masks, hand gloves and sanitizers are also being supplied to the polling stations. He said that steps are also being taken to provide thermal scanners to every polling station to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

As many as 265 buses, 96 minibuses, 96 cars, 29 vans, 63 Tata Magic vehicles, 1 Jeep and a total of 550 vehicles are being used for the transportation of election material and employees. He said 121 sensitive and 95 hypersensitive gram panchayats have been identified under the two divisions and the polling process is being monitored under micro-observation and videography.