Above 70 per cent Haryanvis cast their votes by 6 pm on Sunday to elect the members of Zila Parishads and Panchayat Samitis in nine districts of Haryana. At 6 pm, voters were witnessed still standing in queue to exercise their vote, said the election official.
The State Election Commission official said that the people standing in queue will be allowed to cast their votes, and the voting percentage is expected to increase.
The first phase of panchayat polls is being held in 61 blocks of Bhiwani, Jhajjar, Jind, Kaithal, Mahendragarh, Nuh, Panchkula, Panipat and Yamunanagar to elect 1,278 Panchayat Samiti members and 175 Zila Parishad members. There are over 49 lakh registered voters and 6,019 booths have been set up. The polling, from 7 am to 6 pm, was held peacefully, the officials said.
By 2 pm, Panchkula had recorded 50 per cent polling, Nuh 48 per cent, Yamunanagar 47 per cent, Bhiwani 38.6 per cent, Jhajjar 39.6 per cent, Jind 42.1 per cent, Kaithal 41.8 per cent, Mahendragarh 37.9 per cent while Panipat had seen 42.8 per cent voting. The first phase voting to elect sarpanches and panches will be held on November 2.
Haryana State Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh had earlier said that 133 sarpanches and 17,158 panches had been unanimously elected in nine districts ahead of these polls, while 56 candidates had been unanimously elected for panchayat samitis.
In the first phase, 34,371 candidates are in the fray for the posts of panches, sarpanches and members, panchayat samitis and zila parishads. Of them, 19,175 are men and 15,196 women.
Overall, there are 6,220 gram panchayats, 143 panchayat samitis and 22 zila parishads.
While the results of the polls for sarpanches and panches will be declared at the end of each phase of voting, those of polls to elect Zila Parishads and Panchayat Samiti members will be declared on November 27 after the completion of all the three phases.
The second phase of voting— to be held on November 9 to elect the Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti members, and November 12 to pick sarpanches and panches — will cover nine other districts.
The third and final phase of polling in the remaining districts to elect Zila Parishad and Panchayat Samiti members will be held on November 22 and elections to choose sarpanches and panches will be held on November 25.
Panchayat Election Presiding Officer Found Dead in Y’nagar village
A presiding officer on election duty was found dead in Fatehpur village, falling under Saraswati Nagar block of Yamunanagar district, on Sunday. The deceased has been identified as 50-year-old Ashok Kumar of Jagadhri’s Sector-17.
The body was taken to the Civil Hospital, where a postmortem would be conducted. The reason behind the death is not yet known.
As per the available information, Ashok Kumar had slept after having dinner on Saturday night and was found dead in the morning at about 5.30 am. The polling team was staying in the school of the village.
He was appointed as presiding officer in Fatehpur village, where two booths — number 36 and 37 — had been set up for the elections of Zila Parishad and Block Samiti, for which votes were being polled on Sunday.
Ashok Kumar, City Magistrate-cum-Returning Officer, Saraswati Nagar, said that an employee was found dead in Fatehpur village, but polling at the booths set up in the said village were held smoothly.
