Hyderabad: Polling for the first phase of the Telangana Gram Panchayat elections is currently underway on Thursday. The voting began at 7 a.m. for 3,834 Sarpanch posts and 27,628 Ward Member posts amid tight security.

A total of 12,960 candidates are in the fray for Sarpanch posts, while 65,455 candidates are competing for the Ward Member posts.

More than 56 lakh voters are eligible to cast their votes at 37,562 polling centres spread across 189 mandals.

The polling will continue till 1 p.m., while the counting of votes will be taken up from 2 p.m. Subsequently, a meeting of newly-elected ward members will be held to elect deputy sarpanches.

The elections are being seen as a test for ruling Congress and opposition BRS and BJP even though Gram Panchayat polls are conducted on a non-par

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