Civic polls to be held in Rajasthan Saturday

All arrangements are in place across Rajasthan where voting for 46 civic bodies, including the Jaipur Municipal Corporation, will be held Saturday, officials here said.

"The counting of votes will take place Nov 25," a senior official of the state election commission told IANS Friday.

Over 66 lakh electors, including over 29 lakh female voters, will exercise their franchise in these local-level elections. The voting, through EVMs, will be held from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 6,135 polling booths.

Besides Jaipur, the other municipal corporations where elections will be held include Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bikaner, Kota and Bharatpur.

The nagar parishads and nagar palikas where elections will be held Nov 22 include Beawar, Alwar, Pushkar, Banswara, Chabra, Barmer, Chittorgarh, Churu, Sri Ganganagar, Mount Abu and Sirohi.

A total of 7,391 candidates are in the fray for 1,680 wards in the 46 civic bodies where voting will take place Saturday.

Candidates of BJP in 10 wards and the Congress in six have already been declared elected unopposed.

Candidates of both BJP and the Congress are contesting in all the wards and both the parties have taken these polls seriously.

All the ministers in Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje's cabinet, except her, took active part in canvassing.

From the Congress side, state unit president Sachin Pilot toured almost all the major areas to garner support for the party's candidates.