Hyderabad: Loudspeakers that had been blaring across 4,000-plus villages for so many days have fallen silent as campaigning by parties for the final phase of the Gram Panchayat (GP) elections, to be held on December 17 on non-party basis, concluded on Monday.

The first phase of the GP elections was held on December 11

and the second phase on December 14. The final phase of the elections will be held on December 17 in 182 mandals, 4,157 village panchayats, and 28,406 wards. In the final phase, sarpanches in 394 village panchayats were declared to have been ‘elected unanimously’.

In the final phase, 53,06,401 voters will exercise their franchise. This includes 26,01,861 male voters and 27,04,394 female voters. There are also 146 other voters. The State Election Commission has set up 36,483 polling stations for the final phase of the GP elections. Liquor shops will remain closed from 6 PM on Monday to 6 PM on Wednesday. Polling will be held on Wednesday from 7 AM to 1 PM.

The Congress party has had an edge over other parties in the first two phases of GP elections held so far. Candidates backed by the Congress won in more than half of the total 4,333 Sarpanch seats in the second phase. Except for Siddipet, Kumuram Bheem, Jangaon, and Nirmal districts, Congress-backed candidates secured most of the seats in the remaining districts.

Like in the first phase GP polls, the opposition Bharat Rashtra Samithi party put up a strong fight and secured the second position in the second phase as well. Bharatiya Janata Party-backed candidates won most of the seats in Nirmal district.