Haryana State Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh is likely to announce the date of panchayat elections on Monday. Elections will be held on approximately 71,741 posts for 6500 gram panchayats. Earlier the SEC was contemplating on conducting the polls in two phases, but it is likely that the polls shall be held in four phases due to shortage of officials. The SEC is already making preparations to ensure complete videography of the polling booths that shall be designated as highly-sensitive. Adequate security arrangements to ensure fair polling shall also be ensured at all the polling booths across the state. The panchayat polls are supposed to be conducted every five years, but for the past few years, polls could not be conducted on time. In 2010, there was a delay of nearly five months. The next polls were supposed to be conducted in June, 2015 but it got delayed because the then newly formed BJP government had introduced mandatory education-norms for contesting candidates. Polls were then held in three phases in 2016. This time, due to Covid restrictions, there is already a delay of nearly 18 months in conducting the panchayat elections.
