Bhubaneswar, Feb 16: Sporadic violence, snatching of ballot boxes, boycott of elections as also forcible voting in some booths marred the first phase of elections to the three-tier Panchayati raj Institution in Odisha on Wednesday. Voting was stopped after two groups of people clashed with each other outside the polling booth of Hasanpur village in Sujanpur Panchayat of Jajpur block and fled with the ballot papers and the stamp. The Tehsildar reached the spot and was trying to control the situation.
Polling was also stopped in two other booths of Deoda Panchayat in Jajpur after some people tried to cast their votes forcefully and the other group opposed it. Polling was cancelled at booth no 2 of Erabank in Jajpur district after two rival groups clashed with each other over forcible voting. Around 30 people were injured when some miscreants barged into booth no.4 at Alanda Panchayat under Krushna Prasad block and assaulted the villagers of Uhhi village in the presence of police while they were trying to exercise their franchise. Details are awaited.
Reports said five people were injured and admitted to Rebana Nuagaon hospital after the members of a particular political party assaulted the supporters of another political party at Nishimahar village of Rahadmall Panchayat under Brahmagiri in Puri district. A report from Puri said voting was discontinued in Booth No 9 of Kashijharia village under Brahmagiri Block of Puri district after a miscreant entered the booth in the guise of a voter and ran away with the ballot box. He threw the ballot box over the boundary wall of the booth. Some people waiting outside the boundary wall, fled with the ballot box to a nearby forest.
Four media persons of electronic media were injured and their camera damaged by some miscreants while they were taking the photographs of some people trying to capture the boo at Badhal Panchayat under Kanas block in Puri district The media people resorted to dharna in protest. The villagers of Sarjamdihi in Khunta block boycotted the polling in Badafeni Ward No 3 after they found that only the names of 64 out of 417 people of the village are in the new voter list. Meanwhile, SEC sources said election to the posts of 13 ward members, six Sarpancha, three Panchayat Samiti Members and one Zilla Parishad member was countermanded following the death of the contesting candidates.
The 13 Ward members posts where the election was countermanded included one each at Angul, Baragaragarh, Ganjam, Kendrapara, Keonjhar, Nayagarha and Nuapada., two each in Bolangir, Jagatsinghpur and Mayurbhanj. The elections for the Sarpanchas were countermanded after the death of one candidate each in Balasore, Cuttack, Jajpur, Nawarangpur and the death of two candidates in Baragarha. While the elections for the posts of Panchayat Samiti members were countermanded after the death of one candidate each in Balasore, Angul, and Nuapada.In Keonjhar election was countermanded for the post of Zilla Parishad members following the death of a candidate. SEC sources said over 60 percent of 67.51 lakh voters had exercised their franchise in 22, 379 booths spread over 1669 villages under 71 blocks in 30 districts in the first phase.
As many as 726 candidates are contesting for 200 Zilla Parishad member posts in the first phase of the election. State Election Commission(SEC) sources here said over 2.79 crore voters are scheduled to exercise their franchise in 91,913 wards in 6,794 villages in the panchayat elections to be held in five phases Out of the total 91,913 booths in the state 13,785 have been declared as sensitive booths. As many as 225 platoons of police force have been deployed for smooth conduct of the elections.
