Hyderabad, Dec. 11 -- The first phase of the three-phase Gram Panchayat elections in Telangana concluded at 1 pm on Thursday, following which the counting of votes began at 2 pm.
According to the State Election Commission (SEC), polling commenced at 7 am and continued uninterrupted until 1 pm. Voters who were already in the queue by the deadline were allowed to cast their ballots. Counting of votes was taken up an hour later.
Elections were held for 3,834 Sarpanch and 27,628 Ward Member seats, with voting conducted across 37,562 polling stations. In all, 4,236 Panchayats and 37,440 Ward Member positions fall under the first phase.
The SEC said 396 Sarpanch posts were declared unanimous, along with six more seats where either no nominatio...