Bhubaneswar: Odisha recorded 70 per cent voter turnout in the first phase of the panchayat elections Wednesday amid sporadic incidents of violence, officials said.
Polling was held in the first phase for 200 Zilla Parishad constituencies, 22,379 ward member seats, 1,669 Sarpanch posts and as many number of Panchayat Samiti member posts from 7 am till 1 pm, they said.
Polling was held in 71 blocks across all 30 districts of the state.
Sporadic incidents of violence were reported from Jajpur, Puri and Dhenkanal, even as 225 platoons of police were deployed for the elections, an official said. Each platoon consists of 30 personnel, meaning 6,750 police personnel were deployed.
“Nearly 70 per cent of 67.51 lakh voters exercised their franchise in the first phase,” State Election Commissioner (SEC) AP Padhi said.
“The percentage of polling may increase as some people were in queues even after 1 pm. The commission was waiting for the report from the district collectors where sporadic violence took place during the polling,” he added.
Four journalists were allegedly attacked at a polling booth in Badala panchayat in Kanas block in Puri district. In Chapamanik panchayat in Brahmagiri block of Puri, ballot boxes were snatched from booth-9 in Kashijharia village.
Polling was disrupted at booth-1 in Sujanpur panchayat as a clash broke out between two groups over stealing ballot paper stamps, as per a report that reached the SEC office.
In Mayurbhanj, nearly 500 voters of Sarajamdihi in Badapheni ward-1 alleged that their names were missing from the new voters’ list, and names of only 64 people were in it.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan alleged that members of the ruling BJD in the state perpetrated violence in Dharmasala, Jajpur, Brahmagiri, Angul, Hndol, Bhadrak, Kanas, Jaleswar, Bangirposi, Bhatli and Patnagarh.
“The SEC should take more precautions against violence as four more phases of polling are yet to be held,” he said.
Union Minister Bishweswar Tudu claimed that a picture of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik was put up in the polling booth in Paramananda Khuntapal Primary School in Moroda Block in Mayurbhanj district where he went to cast his vote.
State Congress president Niranjan Patnaik alleged that incidents of booth capturing, ballot box snatching and attack on journalists exposed the state government’s inability to maintain law and order during the panchayat elections.
Rubbishing the allegations of the opposition, a BJD delegation met the SEC and submitted a memorandum, claiming that BJP supporters unleashed a wave of attacks on its workers, besides threatening police and voters.
Taking cognisance of the violence, the SEC asked Director-General of Police (DGP) SK Bansal to ensure that the subsequent phases of polling are held peacefully.
Even as Naxalites threatened to disrupt the poll process, no untoward incident was reported, police said.
The SEC countermanded polling in 23 seats as 23 candidates fighting the elections for different posts of the three-tier panchayat system died between validation of their nomination papers and the day of polling.
SEC Padhi said people participated in the elections adhering to COVID-19 guidelines by wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.
All polling officials, security personnel and other employees engaged in the poll process were doubly vaccinated, he said.
The commission has set up one pink booth in each of the 314 blocks across the state. There was a good response from the voters in the first phase in these booths, which are managed only by women, he said.
The next four phases of polling will be held on February 18, 20, 22 and 24. Campaigning for the second phase ended at 7 pm on Wednesday.
The votes will be counted on February 26, 27 and 28.
PTI
