Rajasthan 2nd phase Panchayat polls: 54 per cent turn out

Jaipur, Jan 22: About 54 per cent of 1.15 crore voters on Thursday exercised their franchise in the second phase of panchayat elections which ended incident free at 1700 hrs, an official said.

So far about 54 per cent of 1.15 crore electors exercised their franchise to elect 343 ward members of Zila Parishad and 2157 members of Panchayat Samiti, Commissioner of the Rajasthan State Election Commission (RSEC) Ramlubhaya told PTI.

The exact percentage of polling would be known later at night due to technical reasons, Ram Lubhaya said.

In the second phase of polls, four candidates were elected unopposed on Zila Parishad seats, while 35 candidates got elected unopposed on Panchayat Samiti seats after the scrutiny of papers last week.

Voting began at 8 AM at 13,088 polling booths amid tight security and intermittent rains.

"Poll process was incident-free and held in a free and fair manner, the Special Additional Director-General of Police (Law and Order) Navdeep Singh told PTI. The last and third phase of panchayat elections will be held on February 1. Counting of votes will be held on February 5.

PTI