Bhopal, June 22: More than 900 unlicensed weapons were seized by the Madhya Pradesh police as a precautionary measure ahead of the panchayat and urban body elections, an official said on Wednesday.

Apart from seizing 993 unlicensed weapons, the police have also gotten over 1.25 lakh people to fill bonds to ensure that they won't indulge in any illegal activity, the official said. As many as 14,599 non-bailable warrants were issued to ensure peaceful conduct of the local body elections in the state, he said. Madhya Pradesh Local Election 2022: Supreme Court Allows OBC Quota, Directs Poll Notification in a Week.

The polling for the three-tier panchayat polls will begin from June 25. The first phase of polling will be held on June 25, followed by the second phase on July 1 and the third on July 8, an official said.

The counting of votes will take place on July 8, July 11, July 14 and July 15 for different posts from panchs to district panchayat members, the official said. The total number of district panchayat members (52 districts) is 875, janpad panchayat members (313 janpad) are 6,771, sarpanches 22,921 and panchs 3,63,726, he said.

Besides, the term of 91 village panchayats will be completed in November 2022 and the schedule for elections in these local bodies will be separately issued later, the official said.

A total of 3,93,78,502 voters will exercise their franchise in these polls, and of these, 2,03,14,793 are men and 1,90,62,749 are women, he said. The State Election Commission has set up 71,643 polling booths to conduct the polls, he added.

Similarly, the two-phase local bodies elections in the state for 413 municipalities, including 16 nagar palika nigams, 99 nagar palika parishads and 298 nagar parishads will be held on July 6 and July 13.

At present, the polls will be held in two-phases only in 347 local bodies and will be held later in the rest, an election official said. In the first-phase on July 6, polling will take place in 133 local bodies, while elections will be held in 214 municipalities in the second-phase on July 13, he said.

Unlike the panchayat elections, these polls will be held on party basis, he added. The counting for the first phase will be held on July 17, while for the second phase it will be held on July 18, the official said, adding that the polling will take place from 7 am to 5 am.

A total of 19,977 polling booths are set up for these elections and 30,761 EVM machines will be deployed. As many as 1,53,23,738 voters, including 17,54,236 women and 78,68,406 men, will exercise their franchise in these local body elections, the official added.

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