Lucknow:

The Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission on Friday issued the notification for the three-tier panchayat polls in the state, which will be held in four phases.

Polling for all the gram panchayats, kshetra panchayats and zila panchayats will be held on April 15, 19, 26 and 29 and the counting of votes will be taken up from 8 am on May 2, the notification issued by State Election Commissioner Manoj Kumar said.

According to the notification, there will be a general election for the posts of pradhans and members of all gram panchayats, members of all the kshetra panchayats and members of zila panchayats. The commission has made it clear that polling will not be held in the constituencies affected by a stay order issued by a court and where the local body has more than six months of its tenure left.

According to the commission, in the first phase on April 15, voting will be held in Saharanpur, Ghaziabad, Rampur, Bareilly, Hathras, Agra, Kanpur Nagar, Jhansi, Mahoba, Prayagraj, Rae Bareli, Hardoi, Ayodhya, Shravasti, Santkabirnagar, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur and Bhadohi districts.

In the second phase on April 19, polling will be held in Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Bijnor, Amroha, Badaun, Etah, Mainpuri, Kannauj, Etawah, Lalitpur, Chitrakoot, Pratapgarh, Lucknow, Lakhimpur Kheri, Sultanpur, Gonda, Maharajganj, Varanasi and Azamgarh districts.

In the third phase of polling on April 26, votes will be cast in Shamli, Meerut, Moradabad, Pilibhit, Kasganj, Firozabad, Auraiya, Kanpur Dehat, Jalaun, Hamirpur, Fatehpur, Unnao, Amethi, Barabanki, Balrampur, Siddharthnagar, Deoria, Chandauli, Mirzapur and Ballia districts.

Polling for the fourth and final phase will be held on April 29 in Bulandshahr, Hapur, Sambhal, Shahjahanpur, Aligarh, Mathura, Farrukhabad, Banda, Kaushambi, Sitapur, Ambedkaranagar, Bahraich, Basti, Kushinagar, Ghazipur, Sonbhadra and Mau districts.

Filing of nominations for the first phase of polling will take place from 8 am to 5 pm on April 3 and 4, while the scrutiny of the nomination papers will be done on April 5 and 6. The last date for withdrawal of nominations is April 7 and the election symbol will be allotted after 3 pm on the same day. The first phase of polling will be held on April 15 from 7 am to 6 pm.

The nominations for the second phase will be filed from 8 am to 5 pm on April 7 and April 8, those for the third phase will be filed from 8 am to 5 pm on April 13 and 15 and the process will take place from 8 am to 5 pm on April 17 and 18 for the fourth phase.

Voting for all the four phases will be held from 7 am to 6 pm. PTI SAB