Jaipur: Rajasthan will vote to elect 3,314 sarpanch and 28,682 ward panch across 16 districts Saturday, with around 85 lakh voters set to cast their ballots at 9,923 polling booths. Polling will be held from 7 am to 6 pm, with ballot papers being used instead of EVMs and each voter required to cast two votes — one for sarpanch and the second for ward panch. Counting will begin after polling ends, with results to be declared the same day.In the first phase, Barmer has the highest number of seats, with elections to be held for 419 sarpanch and 3,025 ward panch. Nominations for all posts in the 3,314 gram panchayats were completed Friday and the total number of candidates for sarpanch posts is 16795. Some of the districts that will go to the polls in the first phase are Ajmer, Alwar, Barmer, Bhilwara, Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Jhalawar, Kota and Nagaur. Of the 85 lakh voters, 43.8 lakh are male voters, 41.2 lakh female voters and 27 third-gender voters.Counting will begin after polling concludes at 6 pm. Ward panch votes will be counted first, followed by the sarpanch votes. While results are expected to be declared by night, counting may extend late into the night in closely contested panchayats where recounting is required because of narrow victory margins.Sarpanch and ward panch elections are not contested on party symbols, and political parties do not officially allot tickets for these posts. However, the polls often witness close contests, with local issues and village-level political equations playing a key role.The next stage of the election process will be held on Oct 25, when elected ward panch will vote to choose their up-sarpanch. Unlike Saturday’s elections, the up-sarpanch is elected by ward panch, and ordinary voters do not participate directly in the process.
