Over 70% polling in panchayat elections

GANDHINAGAR/VADODARA: Close to 70% voting was recorded in the elections to 8,954 gram panchayats held on Tuesday even as violence broke out in some villages of Dahod and Anand districts.

In all, there are 10,729 panchayats but 1,324 were declared samras where people unanimously selected sarpanchs and panchayat members without voting. Braving winter chill, people came out enthusiastically to cast their votes in most parts of the state.

Though the panchayat polls are not fought on party symbols, results would be keenly watched by both BJP and Congress to gauge the mood of voters at the grass-root level, especially post demonetization. All state ministers were present in their respective constituencies despite Tuesday being the public visitor’s day in Gandhinagar.

“As per preliminary estimates available from various districts, the average voting percentage is likely to cross 70%. We expect it to be higher than previous elections when average voting was 78%,” Varesh Sinha, commissioner of

State Election Commission

, told media persons.

“Re-poll will be held at two villages where some administrative issues were reported. At 12 places, elections were postponed due to death of candidates,” he said.

Elections were held for 8,527 posts of sarpanch and 53,116 wards. Counting will be done by 17,347 people at 252 places which will have 1,643 halls on Thursday.

This will also be the first statewide election after demonetization the effect of which was badly felt in the countryside and farmers taking a big blow due to cash crunch.

In Detal (Duva) village of Banaskantha, voting had to be stopped mid-way when the mamlatdar brought to notice a printing error in the ballot papers.

The election symbol of candidate

Champa Chauhan

was erroneously printed as bucket while she had demanded suitcase. Officials said that re-polling will be done in two booths of Detal (Duva) and one booth in Detal (Darbar) village on Wednesday. South Gujarat saw 80% voter turnout across Surat, Navsari and Valsad districts. There are over 25 lakh registered voters in the gram panchayat elections. Small skirmishes were reported from some villages, police said.

In Surat, the voting was around 80%. The final figure will be known only by late night as in Umarwada taluka there are number of villages that have no connectivity and the voting figures from there are yet to arrive.

Navsari villages witnesses 82% voting. In a Skariya village, six voters of one ward voted in other ward and as a result some small technical issues arose. However, in the presence of collector Ravi Arora it was sorted out.

Valsad district saw less turnout with nearly 70% voters turning up. Remya Mohan, Valsad collector said, “There were no incidents of violence and voting was over peaceful.”

Violence mars polls in Dahod, Anand

Vadodara: Violent clashes were reported from Dahod and Anand districts on Tuesday even as one person was injured in private firing in Dahod district.

Elections officials had a tough time in Fatehpura taluka of Dahod where a mob pelted stones on a polling booth in Vangad village. When polling officials tried to close doors of the polling booth, the mob broke it open. An official on duty at the booth was injured in the incident.

At Javesi village in Fatehpura, a man identified as Praful Damor fired a shot outside a polling booth that hit Bharat Damor who was rushed to the Sukhsar government hospital. Clashes were also reported at a couple of other villages in the district.

In Anand district,

Chiman Patel

, former sarpanch of Undel village and his nephew Bharat were allegedly beaten up by a group of 12 from the rival group in Khambhat taluka on Monday night. He told police that the group led by Atul Patel attacked them near Masjid faliya in Undel with wooden sticks leaving Chiman severely injured.

In another incident, two sons and son-in-law of former junior minister for agriculture Govind Parmar were accused of damaging a car and stealing a gold chain of a rival group in Chikodra village.

Dharmendra Raulji

, the complainant has alleged that Parmar’s sons Harshad and Ashok and his son-in-law Rajesh Gohil along with a fourth accused Kiran Parmar allegedly attacked him at Chikodra village in Anand taluka and damaged his car. Harshad is contesting for the post of sarpanch at Chikodra.