Haryana panchayat polls: Amid incidents of violence at several places, over 79% turns out to vote
Amid incidents of violence at some places, over 79 per cent polling took place (till 5 pm) in the first phase of Haryana’s Panchayat elections for the polls to elect panches and sarpanches in nine districts of Haryana.
The polling, which began at 7 am and continued till 6 pm, took place in the districts of Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Kaithal, Mahendragarh, Nuh, Panchkula, Panipat and Yamunanagar. Incidents of stone pelting and clashes were reported from two villages in Nuh, though police said these incidents did not take place on the polling booth and the poll process remained unaffected.
“There is no incident on the polling booth. However, there were some incidents of fight and stone pelting in two villages. The polling process is unaffected”, Nuh’s Superintendent of Police Varun Singla told media persons.
By 12 pm, among the districts, Nuh had recorded 42.2 per cent poll percentage, Panchkula 40.4 per cent, Kaithal 36.1 per cent and Jind recorded 35.9 per cent. However, by 5 pm, Panchkula was leading with over 85.4 per cent polling. Incidents of violence were reported in Jhajjar’s village Jahindpur where two groups clashed with each other and a few sustained injuries. Similar incidents of clashes were also reported from Kalayat in Kaithal district’s village Julani Khera.
In Narnaul’s village Ropar Sarai also two groups clashed and pelted stones at each other leaving six-seven persons injured.
Superintendent of Police Vikrant Bhushan reached the spot with heavy police force and brought the situation under control.
In Kalayat, villagers also blocked Chandigarh-Hisar national highway for some time in protest against allegations of irregularities at a polling booth in Pandva village. By 5 pm, Bhiwani had recorded 78.1 per cent polling, Jhajjar (75.7%), Jind (78.6%), Kaithal (75.8%), Mahendragarh (78.7%), Nuh (80.7%), Panipat (80.1%) and Yamunanagar (83.2%). Panchkula was leading with over 85.4% polling. On Tuesday, Haryana State Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh had said that 2,607 sarpanches and 25,968 panches in these nine districts would be elected through the polls on November 2.
The first phase polls for zila parishads and panchayat samitis in these districts was held on October 30.
A total of 49 lakh voters in nine districts were supposed to cast their vote at 6019 polling booths. There are 6,220 gram panchayats in the state, where 61,993 panches will be elected and all 6,220 sarpanches will be chosen directly by villagers.
While the results of the panch-sarpanch elections will be declared at the end of voting in each phase, results of zila parishads and panchayat samiti members will be declared on November 27 after all the three phases of polling get completed.
In the second phase, voting for zilla parishad and panchayat samiti members will be held on November 9, while polling for sarpanches and panches will be held on November 12 in Ambala, Charkhi Dadri, Gurugram, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Rewari, Rohtak, Sirsa and Sonipat districts.
The third and final phase of polling in the remaining districts of Hisar, Palwal, Faridabad and Fatehabad to elect members of zila parishad and panchayat samitis will be held on November 22 and that of sarpanches and panches on November 25. “The activities of Panchayat elections will be updated on the ‘Mhari Panchayat Portal’. Voting percentage can be seen anywhere in the state by opening the Mhari Panchayat Portal through the internet. At the same time, the results will be visible on the e-dashboard on the day of counting Anyone can see the election trends, voting percentage and final results on the portal while sitting at home”, Dhanpat Singh said.
