Andhra panchayat polls in end-July

On July 3, the State Election Commission of Andhra Pradesh issued a notification for holding elections to gram panchayats. The elections, which are being held after a gap of two years, will be held in three phases on July 23, 27 and 31.

Of the 21,592 gram panchayats in the state, 21,491 will go to polls and around 39 million (39,401,855) voters will exercise their franchise. Elections are to be conducted in 217,578 wards in the panchayats. Elections will not be held in 101 panchayats in certain districts such as Ranga Reddy and districts proposed to be merged with municipalities, and some others which are involved in litigation. In the first phase, 6,963 panchayats will go to polls on July 23, 7,738 in the second phase on July 27 and 6,890 on July 31.