Amaravati(AP), Feb 13 (PTI) Polling for the second phase of gram panchayat elections in Andhra Pradesh to elect 2,786 ward members began on Saturday, officials said.

Voting commenced at 6.30 am and will conclude at 3.30 pm while counting of votes will start at 4 pm, they said.

Panchayat polls in the state began on February 9 and will go on till February 21 in four phases.

Elections will be held to elect 20,817ward members.

Though the elections were to be held for 3,328panchayat sarpanchs, 539have been unanimously elected while no nominations were filed forthreevillages, an official release said on Friday.

As many as 7507 candidates are contesting for sarpanch posts and 44.876 are in fray for ward members.

The elections are held using ballot paper and without any political party symbols.

A total of 29,304 polling stations were set up, out of which 5480 have been identified as sensitive and 4181 as hypersensitive.

All necessary precautions are in place as per COVID-19 protocols amid tight security and PPE kits will be provided to infected voters.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)