Jaipur, Oct. 4 -- Rajasthan's Panchayati Raj elections will be held in up to four phases between October 23 and November 16, with 4.03 crore voters eligible to cast their ballots, the State Election Commission announced on Saturday. The exercise will cover 41 zila parishads, 457 panchayat samitis and 14,403 gram panchayats, with the model code of conduct coming into immediate effect in the areas concerned. Voting for zila parishad and panchayat samiti members will be held on October 23, 29, November 4 and 14, while elections for panch and sarpanch posts will take place on October 25, 31, November 6 and 16, respectively. Polling will be held from 7am to 6pm. Counting for zila parishad and panchayat samiti members across all phases will take place on November 20 at district headquarters. Votes for panch and sarpanch posts will be counted at gram panchayat headquarters immediately after polling concludes. Up-sarpanch elections will be held the following day in each phase. The number of phases will vary across districts. Jaipur will vote in four phases, while Jaisalmer, Phalodi and Salumber will complete the exercise in one phase. Jhunjhunu, Karauli, Sikar, Banswara, Bikaner, Jalore and Udaipur will vote in three phases, while the remaining districts, including Ajmer, will go to polls in two phases. Jaipur has 22 panchayat samitis and 597 gram panchayats, with 18,99,920 registered voters, the highest among the state's zila parishads. Its gram panchayats have been divided into batches of 212, 112, 133 and 140 across the four phases. Ajmer has 10 panchayat samitis and 261 gram panchayats, of which 122 will vote in the first phase and 139 in the second. The electorate comprises 2,08,87,351 men, 1,94,19,789 women and 168 third-gender voters, marking a 6.22% increase from 3,79,46,235 voters in the previous elections. The commission has set up 45,384 polling centres, with around 3,17,688 election personnel and 2,72,304 police personnel to be deployed. Following delimitation and reorganisation, Rajasthan now has 1,403 zila parishad wards, 8,245 panchayat samiti wards and 1,30,589 gram panchayat wards. The number of gram panchayats has increased 27.23% from 11,320 in the previous elections to 14,403. The commission said the coordinated exercise was aligned with the "One State, One Election" concept. However, elections for zila pramukh and deputy zila pramukh posts in Baran, Sri Ganganagar, Karauli and Kota, along with pradhan and deputy pradhan posts in their panchayat samitis, will be held separately as their terms end in December. In the remaining districts, zila pramukhs will be elected on November 25, followed by deputy zila pramukhs on November 26. Pradhans will be elected on November 27 and deputy pradhans on November 28. Sarpanch and panch elections will be conducted using ballot boxes, while zila parishad and panchayat samiti members will be elected through electronic voting machines. Nominations for zila parishad members will close on October 13, scrutiny will be held on October 14, and candidates can withdraw their nominations until 3pm on October 15....