LUCKNOW: The State Election Commission (SEC) on Friday notified the much-delayed three-tier panchayat polls in Uttar Pradesh. The polls will be held in four phases — April 15, 19, 26, and 29 — and results will be out on May 2.Following the announcement, the UP board exams for high school and intermediate have been rescheduled for May first week. Earlier these exams were to start from April 24.
The poll schedule comes after the UP government got a major reprieve from the Supreme Court, which refused to entertain a petition filed by Dilip Kumar of Sitapur district seeking overruling of the recent order of the Allahabad High Court directing the government to decide the rotation of the reserved panchayat seats by taking 2015 as the base year. The apex court refused to stay the panchayat polls and directed the petitioner to file the plea in the high court.With the poll announcement, the model code of conduct kicks in, which means the Yogi Adityanath government will have to refrain from making any policy announcement.
The nomination papers will be made available from Saturday. The SEC statement said in the first phase on April 15, 18 districts will be covered followed by 20 districts in the second phase on April 19, 20 districts in the third phase on April 26 and 17 districts in the last phase on April 29.In view of the second Covid surge, the poll panel has already issued detailed guidelines.
EC issues guidelines
Poll panel allowed infected candidates to contest only after following the protocol. Covid-positive voters will be allowed to vote during the final hour of polling