With an estimated 65 percent turnout of the voters the second phase of panchyat elections in the state passed off peacefully. Barring the incident of the clash between the Samajwadi party and bahujan Samaj party supporters in several western UP districts where fire arms were used and incidents of booth capturing in several districts no major untoward incident was reported from any of the 73 district where polling was held on Tuesday.
The State election commissioner SK Agarwal said RsRs like the first phase of polling, the second phase was also peaceful and there was no report of nay untoward incident t from any part of the state’’. The Commission has ordered repoll at 21 polling booths in 10 districts. RsRs In seven polling booths repoll has been ordered due to technical reasons as different ballot papers were sent there and in remaining there were complaints like pouring of water in the ballot box and other poll related irregularities.
A case was lodged by the police against the Ajit Prasad son of the social welfare minister Awadesh Prasad under the charges of giving threats and intimidation to a candidate for district panchayat. The FIR was lodged at the Raunahi police station against the minister son.
In Meerut the Nawazish Manzoor, son of the labopur minister Shahid Manzoor and the supporters of the relative of BSP Rajya Sabha MP Munkaad Ali clashed Radhna village of Kithore. Fire arms were freely used in the clash. Police rushed to the spot and several persons were taken into custody. The BSP supporters alleged that the minister’s son attempted to capture the polling booth. The district administration is likely to recommend redpoll in the Radon village. Etawah, the home district of the Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, police seized two rifles from the SUV of a Samajwadi party leader Ramvir Singh Yadav.
Police had set up check post on the National highway and arms were recovered from the vehicle. The occupants of the vehicle and the driver managed to escape. Police has impounded the vehicle. Seven persons were arrested at Gangapur polling center under Basrehar block of Etawah for fake voting. They were arrested by the SSP Manzil Saini as she checked the identity of the voters in a random check. BJP candidate for member district panchyat in Etawah Brijvir Singh lala was arrested and country made pistols, cartridges and liquor bottles were recovered from their vehicle. Manish Yadav, the brother of the BJP candidate alleged his brother has been framed in false charges as he is giving a tough fight to the Samajwadi party candidate.
In Mainpuri country made weapons were recovered from the vehicle of a candidate for member district panchyat. In Agra four persons were arrested by the police for distributing cash among the voters under Saiyyan police station of the district. In Firozabad at Pahadpur polling booth three persons were arrested for casting fake votes. In same district at Ranipura polling booth the supporters of rival candidates clashed over the fake voting. The police intervened in the matter and the situation was brought under control. In Kasganj rival groups clashed at several polling stations, the situation was brought under control following the intervention of the police. In Pratapgarh district a polling booth was captured in Sansarpur block of the district. The miscreants also fired in the air. The police later arrested two persons.
According to Sec sources one presiding officer in lakimpur district. Polling was held up for several hours at one polling station of Sultanpur district following the delivery of ballot papers of some other pooling station. In second phase of elections polling was held in 203 development blocks for the 892 wards of member district panchyat and 19,615 wards of member kshetra panchayat. The State Election commission (SEC) had set up 19,737 polling centers and 44,510 polling booths for the elections. As per the directive of the SEC ideography of each of the polling booth identified as sensitive. hyper sensitive and hyper sensitive was conducted. Over 2.86 crore voters were expected to exercise their franchise in second phase of the elections. Around 3.5 police, para military, jawans of home guards and village chowidars were deployed in the election for maintaining law and order.