Lucknow: Elections for Zilla Panchayat President posts in 53 districts of Uttar Pradesh will be held on Saturday after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 22 of them and Samajwadi Party candidates unopposed in Etawah.
The State Election Commission said that the polling will be held from 11 am to 3 pm. Counting of votes will take place after 3 pm.
UP State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar said in a statement on Tuesday that the presidents of district panchayats of 22 districts have been elected unopposed. The election panel did not announce the party affiliation of the winning candidates, but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) later claimed that it had won 21 seats and the Samajwadi Party (SP) said that the seat in Etawah district was won by its candidate. was.
The State Election Commission said that district panchayat chiefs have been elected unopposed from Saharanpur, Bahraich, Itawa, Chitrakoot, Agra, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Bulandshahar, Amroha, Moradabad, Lalitpur, Jhansi, Banda, Shravasti, Balrampur, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Mau, Varanasi, Pilibhit and Shahjahanpur. UP State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar said that chairpersons of these district panchayats have been elected unopposed.
The Zilla Panchayat President is elected from amongst the elected members of the Zilla Panchayats of different districts.
Panchayat elections in four phases in the state were concluded in May.
The district panchayat election comes before the assembly elections and can prove to be a test for BJP and SP.
Earlier in the Panchayat elections, the BJP suffered a major setback as many of the party’s candidates lost and the result was seen as a referendum on the Yogi government.
Referring to these reasons, BSP chief Mayawati had announced not to contest the elections. Similarly, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav had also accused the Yogi Adityanath government of threatening candidates and influencing the elections.
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