As many as 638 candidates are in the fray for the cooperative society polls, of which, 240 would come up in the first phase of the elections.
Out of the 240 societies that go to polls on April 5, elections will be conducted for only 37, as office bearers to 203 societies have been declared unopposed.
The societies comprise 82 under the control of the Department of Cooperatives, 118 under dairy development, 15 under handloom, 2 under fisheries, 8 under khadi and village industries, 5 under district industries centre, 3 under district social welfare, 2 under integrated children development, 3 under agricultural engineering and 2 under sericulture.
According to an official communication from the joint registrar of societies, department of cooperation here, elections to the 921 cooperative societies in the district would be conducted in four stages. In the first stage 240 societies would go to polls to elect 2,494 office bearers. On March 29, 3,194 candidates had filed nominations, of which 321 were rejected.
On March 30, the last day to withdraw from the election, 483 candidates had withdrawn, leaving 638 candidates in the fray.
The 37 societies which go to polls included 25 cooperative department, 9 dairy, 2 handloom and 1 fisheries. The poll process for the second stage of election to the next batch of 235 societies begins on April 4.