The over 16 % of the total 12,732 sarpanches were elected unanimously in the just concluded gram panchayat elections in the State.
Elections were notified for 12,732 panchayats of which no nominations were received for sarpanch posts in 24 panchayats while 2,134 candidates were elected unanimously taking the total number of gram panchayats where elections were held to 10,571. In respect of ward members, nominations were not received for 492 out of the 1.13 lakh wards where elections were notified and 29,985 (26.4 %) were elected unanimously. Telangana State Election Commissioner V. Nagi Reddy said elections for two gram panchayats and 18 ward member posts were not held because of High Court stay and election of sarpanch in Mallapur village of Jagtial district was declared void following allegations that the post was auctioned.
Peaceful poll
Expressing satisfaction that the polls were held peacefully in all the villages, he said 96,029 polling stations were set for the election and the process was webcast in 2,114 polling stations. Over 1.47 lakh personnel were drafted for the conduct of the elections in addition to 26,340 security personnel who were deployed on poll duties. An average 3.26 candidates were in the fray for each sarpanch post while it was 2.42 in respect of ward members’ posts.
The average polling percentage across the three phases was 87.3 with Yadadri-Bhongir district registering a highest of 94.6 % polling and Vikarabad remaining the lowest at 77.04 %. The number of candidates for each per seat for sarpanch posts decreased to 3.26 from 3.44 of the previous elections in 2013 even as the polling percentage increased by 2.11 % from 85.19 to 87.3. The State Election Commissioner wanted the contested candidates to submit reports of their election expenditure within 45 days to avoid action against non-compliance with the election norms.
