Jaipur, Nov 2 — Voting for the third phase of the Rajasthan Panchayati Raj elections will be held on Tuesday across 27 districts, with more than 10.68 million voters set to decide the electoral fate of 9,094 candidates. Polling will be conducted for 377 wards in 27 Zila Parishads and 2,119 wards in 116 Panchayat Samitis.
A total of 1,305 candidates are contesting for the 377 Zila Parishad seats, while 7,789 candidates are in the fray for the 2,119 Panchayat Samiti seats.
According to election officials, 10,681,567 voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in this phase. Also, a total of 11,869 polling stations have been established to conduct the elections.
Bharatpur, the home district of Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma, has the highest number of candidates contesting Panchayat Samiti seats in the third phase. It also has a significant number of candidates for Zila Parishad wards.
In Bharatpur, 91 candidates are contesting for 19 Zila Parishad wards. Dausa and Hanumangarh have the highest number of Zila Parishad wards, with 24 each. Among Panchayat Samitis, Dausa has the highest number of wards at 142, with 474 candidates contesting.
In Bharatpur, elections will be held for 98 Panchayat Samiti wards, with 696 candidates in the fray, the highest number of candidates for Panchayat Samiti seats in any district in this phase. With thousands of candidates contesting across the state, the third phase is expected to witness keen electoral battles at the grassroots level.
Further, in this third phase of the Panchayat elections, both the BJP and the Congress face a crucial test of their political strength in rural Rajasthan. The elections for Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti members across 17 districts have become a prestige battle for both parties.
Of the 65 Assembly constituencies spread across these districts, the BJP holds 30 seats, while the Congress has 27, indicating a closely balanced political contest at the state level. Against this backdrop, candidate selection, local caste equations, coordination among party leaders and efforts to prevent internal sabotage will play a decisive role in determining the outcome of the panchayat elections.
For the Congress, the challenge is to sustain the momentum generated by its victory in the Anta Assembly by-election while protecting its traditional vote bank. The party also faces growing competition from the Bharat Adivasi Party (BAP) in tribal-dominated areas, where the regional outfit has been expanding its influence.
The electoral outcome will therefore serve as an important indicator of the political mood in rural Rajasthan and the organisational strength of both national parties ahead of future electoral battles.