Urban local bodies’ polls: Nomination process gets underway in Prayagraj

The process for filing nomination papers began in the district on Tuesday after the district election officer (DEO), Sanjay Kumar Khatri, issued the notification for Urban Local Bodies (ULB) elections-2023 on Monday evening.

On the first day of nominations for urban local bodies elections, many aspiring candidates gathered to procure nomination papers. In all, 719 sets of nomination papers were sold for the posts of mayor, corporators, Nagar Panchayat chairman and members.

For the post of Prayagraj mayor, Congress’s Sanjay Tiwari procured one set, Ajit Kumar Patel of Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party took one set, Mohd Lucky Khan of All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) took two sets, Vinay Chandra Srivastava, Ganeshji Tiwari, Shailendra Prajapati and Shyamdev took a set each, while Abhilasha Gupta took two sets, officials said.

In all, 10 sets of nomination papers have been procured by eight candidates for the post of mayor, they added.

On the other hand, 547 nomination papers were taken for the post of corporator while only one candidate from ward number 85 filed his nomination papers for the post of corporator on the first day, they added.

Similarly, 33 seats of nomination forms for the post of chairman and another 132 forms of members for the eight Nagar Panchayats were sold on day one, officials said.

Elections for electing corporators for 100 wards of Prayagraj Municipal Corporation along with Prayagraj mayor besides president and members of eight Nagar Panchayats of the district will be held on May 4 with filing of nomination papers taking place between April 11 and April 17 followed by scrutiny of papers on April 18, withdrawal of nominations on April 20, and allotment of election symbols on April 21, followed by counting of votes on May 13.

The DEO has also appointed 16 returning officers and 48 assistant returning officers for the elections with each RO handing the responsibility of seven wards each of the city .

Candidates for the post of mayor will be able to buy and submit nomination papers from the court of district magistrate from 11 am to 3 pm while 15 rooms have been set up for purchasing and submitting nomination papers of corporators of the 100 wards of PMC, also between 11am and 3pm, officials said.

Similarly, for sale and submission of nomination papers for the posts of chairman and members of the eight Nagar Panchayats, 13 rooms have been set up at the respective tehsils, officials said.

Control room set up

A control room has been set up in the Sangam auditorium located within the district collectorate campus for the ULB Polls-2023. Shift-wise duties of officers and employees have been fixed in the control room. The control room number is 0532-2641577 and 2641578. The e-mail ID of the control room is [email protected], the district election officer Sanjay Kumar Khatri said.