Bhubaneswar: Panchayat elections in Odisha will be conducted in different phases in March and April next year, state election commissioner Madhusudan Padhi told media here on Saturday.Padhi said the notification for the panchayat elections will be issued after March 5, following the completion of the census. “The first phase of elections will be conducted in the last week of March. As we have 91,000 booths, we cannot complete the polls in two phases. We expect that the panchayat election will be conducted in five phases,” he said, adding elections to urban local bodies (ULBs) will be conducted 15 or 30 days after the rural polls.This time, the elections will be conducted for the municipal corporations of Rourkela, Sambalpur and Puri.Padhi said the commission is in touch with the Panchayati Raj department for finalisation of seat reservations by Oct 31 this year.To ensure the upcoming panchayat and municipal elections in the state are fair, accurate and well-organised, the State Election Commission has started a special pilot survey in the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) area from Sept 3 to correct errors in the voter list. The door-to-door survey will continue till Sept 11.From Oct 26 to Nov 7, the same survey will be carried out across the state to streamline and update voter lists for both panchayat and urban local body constituencies. One of the main aims of the survey is to permanently address persistent problems such as members of the same family being listed at different polling booths and unclear house numbers.The commission has urged the public to fully cooperate and provide accurate information to the teams carrying out the survey, including Booth Level Officers and other staff.Meanwhile, the ruling BJP, opposition BJD, Congress and other parties have begun strengthening their grassroots-level cadres in rural areas and ULBs.
