Chandigarh, Oct 30 (IANS): Polling began on Sunday in the first phase of electing members of the zila parishads and panchayat samitis in nine districts of Haryana, officials said.

A total of 49,67,092 will exercise franchise in the polling for 1,278 Panchayat Samiti and 175 Zilla Parishad members, state Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh said.

He said 6,019 polling booths have been set up.

In 61 blocks of Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Kaithal, Mahendragarh, Nuh, Panchkula, Panipat and Yamunanagar districts polling is underway.

An additional police force has been deployed in sensitive and hyper-sensitive polling booths, he said.

In view of inconvenience caused to the voters, adequate arrangements have been made for drinking water, uninterrupted electricity and wheelchairs so that persons with disabilities and the elderly can easily cast their votes.

Singh said after the panchayat elections in all 22 districts are over on November 27, the counting of ballots will take place simultaneously.