Jaipur: Over 1.06 crore voters will decide the electoral fate of 9,094 candidates in the third phase of Rajasthan’s Panchayati Raj elections Tuesday, with polling scheduled across 27 districts for 377 zila parishad and 2,119 panchayat samiti wards. Of the total candidates, 1,305 are contesting zila parishad seats and 7,789 are in the fray for panchayat samiti wards.A total of 11,869 polling stations have been set up for the exercise. Chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma’s home district Bharatpur has the highest number of candidates, with 91 contesting 19 zila parishad wards and 696 vying for 98 panchayat samiti wards.Of the total 1.06 crore voters in the third phase, 55.4 lakh are male voters and 51.3 lakh are female voters.According to state election commission data, Dausa and Hanumangarh have the highest number of zila parishad wards at 24 each. In Dausa, 24 zila parishad members will be elected, while 142 panchayat samiti wards will also go to the polls, the highest among the districts going to the polls in this phase. A total of 474 candidates are contesting panchayat samiti seats in Dausa.Bharatpur, meanwhile, has the highest number of panchayat samiti candidates in the third phase, with 696 candidates contesting 98 wards. The district also leads in the number of zila parishad candidates, with 91 candidates contesting 19 wards.The polling will determine the composition of zila parishads and panchayat samitis in the 27 districts, with a total of 2,496 seats going to the polls in this phase.
