Hyderabad | Polling was underway in 3,834 villages in the first phase of the Gram Panchayat elections in Telangana on Thursday.

Over 56 lakh voters are eligible to exercise their franchise in the election.

Around 13,000 Sarpanch candidates are in the fray, while 65,455 nominees are contesting for 27,628 wards, officials said.

A release said unanimous elections took place in 396 gram panchayats.

Webcasting was being conducted in over 3,000 gram panchayats to ensure real-time monitoring of the polling process.

Extensive security arrangements have been made for polling. All polling stations have been classified as either critical or normal, with police deployment based on the sensitivity and vulnerability of each location.

The polling began at 7 am and would conclude at 1 pm. The counting begins at 2 pm.

Telangana State Election Commission on November 25 announced a three-phase schedule for gram panchayat elections to be held on December 11, 14 and 17.

Following the recent bypoll to Jubilee Hills assembly constituency which the ruling Congress won, the Gram Panchayat elections are seen as a test of popularity of the Congress, BRS and BJP.

Owing to legal hurdles surrounding the Congress government's move to provide 42 per cent reservation to Backward Classes in local bodies, the Telangana government on November 17 decided to conduct elections only for gram panchayats, deferring polls for other rural local bodies, including Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency (ZPTC) members.