Voter’s turnout in the third phase of Panchayat polls across the state hovered around 65 percent even as the process was marred by violence in some places on Saturday. The third phase of polling encompassed 190 development blocks in 69 districts. For the 715 posts of member district panchayat as many as 11, 753 candidates are in the fray. For the 18,016 post of member kshetra Panchayat 95,540 candidates are in the fray.
In Ballia, a retired constable was shot dead while his son suffered gunshot wounds in the Nargi area of Ballia on Saturday. Former cop Ramnath Yadav and his son Kanta Nath were going to cast their vote at Ramgarh ward when they got involved in a scuffle with some persons. The incident snowballed and several rounds were fired. While Ramnath Yadav died on the spot, his son was hospitalised with serious wounds.
Cross FIRs were later lodged at the Narhi police station wherein five person each were named. The police later arrested three persons in this connection.
later, State Election Commissioner, SK Agarwal said that the murder was not related to the polls and it was a fall out of an old enmity. He also claimed that barring the incident at Ballia, polling was peaceful in all 69 districts where polling was held on Saturday.
Similarly in Rampur, firearms were freely used and several rounds were fired while over a dozen persons were arrested on charges of clash, attempts to disrupt polling and bogus voting. The SEC again dismissed it claiming that these were not related to polling.
Meanwhile in Katghar, Moradabad, one person was arrested with a cache of illegal arms while cash, liquor, foreign currency and cartridges were recovered from the vehicle of a Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha functionary in Etawah.
In lucknow, over 4,000 voters from the Kaliya Khera and Pyrepur villages of Kakori block boycotted polling to protest the alleged forcible acquisition of their 650 acres of land by the lucknow Development Authority.
In Saharanpur, residents of Sidiki village boycotted polling to protest the refusal of the administration in paying compensation to the kin of a youth killed in a road accident.
In Kanauji, Congress leader Tariq Bashir was arrested for bogus voting. In Jaunpur a candidate vying for the post of member district Panchayat was arrested for violating the model code of conduct and his vehicle was impounded. In Farrukhabad, one person was arrested with country made pistol outside the polling station.
In Achalda of Auraiya, six persons were arrested for bogus voting. In Sadar block of Balrampur, polling was disrupted for several hours following a group clash charges of bogus voting. Similarly, four persons were arrested in Baghpat for bogus voting.
For the third phase, the Center had provided eight additional companies of RAF, while 129 companies of PAC, 95,000 police personnel, 91, 000 home guards, 53,000 village Chowkidars and 13,000 jawans of Pradesh Raksha Dal (PRD) were deployed.