UP Gram panchayat polls to begin on November 28

After the successful completion of Zila and Kshetra panchayat elections, the Uttar Pradesh Election Comission today issued notification for electing 58,909 village heads and seven lakh Gram panchayat members starting November 28.
"The election will be held in four phases - November 28, December 1, 5 and 9 and counting will be held on December 12," State Election Commissioner (SEC) S K Agarwal told reporters here today.
In all, around 11.42 crore voters will elect 58,909 village heads and seven lakh Gram panchayats' members across the state, Agarwal said.
"With this, the model code of conduct has come into force in the state with immediate effect," he said.

Zila and Kshetra panchayat polls were by and large peaceful and no major incident was reported, Agarwal said.
"All arrangements have been made to ensure peaceful and transparent conduct of village panchayat polls," he said.

The polling would be monitored through close circuit television cameras and ballot boxes would be kept in double locks, he said.
Polling would start at 7 am and would continue till 4.30 pm, however, in naxal affected districts including Sonbhadra, Chandauli and Mirzapur polling would be held till 4 pm, the SEC said.
Keeping in view the delay in counting during Zila and Kshetra Panchayat polls, a few changes have been made in the process this time, Agarwal said.

Over the deployment of Central Para Military Forces during the elections, the State Election Commissioner said that the commission has asked for 423 companies, but the state government has written to the Centre only for 250 companies.