Telangna, Dec 17 : Polling commenced on Wednesday for the third and final phase of Gram Panchayat elections in Telangana. Voters are electing 3,752 Sarpanches and 28,410 Ward Members across 182 mandals in 31 districts.
A total of 12,652 candidates are contesting for Sarpanch posts, while 75,725 candidates are in the fray for Ward Member positions. Approximately 53 lakh voters are eligible to cast their ballots at 36,483 polling stations across the state. Polling began at 7 a.m. and will continue until 1 p.m., with counting scheduled to start from 2 p.m.
Cold wave conditions in some northern districts of Telangana slightly affected voter turnout. The State Election Commission (SEC) had issued notifications for 4,159 Gram Panchayats for this phase. Sarpanches were elected unanimously in 394 villages, while 11 Gram Panchayats received no nominations. Polling could not be held in two Panchayats due to court orders.
Of the 36,452 Ward Member seats notified, 7,908 were elected unopposed, elections in 18 wards were stayed, and 116 wards had no nominations. SEC Chief Rani Kumudini monitored the polling process from Hyderabad through CCTV footage and a live dashboard.
The SEC deployed 43,856 ballot boxes and arranged webcasting at 3,547 polling stations to ensure transparency. Over 80% voter turnout was recorded in the first two phases held on December 11 and 14. In these phases, Congress-backed candidates won more than half of the seats, securing 4,579 of 8,568 Panchayats, followed by Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) with 2,357 seats, BJP with 457, and Independents and others with 1,162 seats.
Last month, the SEC had notified elections for 12,728 Sarpanch posts and 1,12,242 Ward Member seats. A total of 1.66 crore voters in rural Telangana are eligible to participate in these elections.
Elections for Mandal Parishad Territorial Constituencies (MPTCs), Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituencies (ZPTCs), and municipal corporations will be held after the High Court’s final ruling on the 42% reservation for Backward Classes (BCs). The High Court in October struck down the government order providing 42% BC reservation in local bodies but allowed the elections to proceed under a 50% overall reservation cap.