Amidst tight security the counting for the panchayat elections began across the state in 74 districts at 819 counting centers on Sunday. The elections were held for the 3,112 seats of member district panchayat and 77,576 seats of the kshetra panchayat. The panchayat elections were held in four phases from October 9 to October 29.
According to the State election commission (SEC) so far results of only 19 members of district panchayats have been declared and out of this 18 were declared elected unopposed. Maximum 12 members were declared unopposed in Pratapgarh district. Raghuraj Pratap Singh alias Raja Bhaiyya is the high profile minister from the district who is independent MlA from Kunda. Rest of the members was declared elected unopposed in Etawah, Mainpuri, Etah, Hardoi and Saharanpur and Gonda districts.
Out of the 77576 posts of the member Kshetra panchayat results of 23,704 seats have been declared which includes 1,396 declared elected unopposed.
The SEC sources said counting is still on and all the results are likely to be declared by the late hours of Sunday and in some districts by early hours of Monday.
The poll panel had banned the taking of the victory procession by the winning candidates. The commission on Sunday morning issued fresh instruction to all the district magistrates and district police chiefs to ensure the compliance of the order for maintaining law and order. JP Singh additional commission said the victory processions seldom leads to clash of the winner with the runners up candidate so this has been banned. He said at each counting centers along with the PAC and local police central Para military forces have also been deployed.
The Commission sources said during the counting at Fatehebad block of Agra district a ballot box of booth no 9 of Rihavali village was found to be empty. later it was found that the termite destroyed 627 ballot papers. The candidates protested to the district returning officer. The district magistrate has recommended repoll on this booth to the State election commission.
In Basti district fake ballot papers were recovered from the ballot box. The candidate for the member Kshetra panchayat Manju Kumar complained to the officials at the counting center. It was found that in a polling booth with 394 votes 435 ballots were found during the counting. The matter has been referred to the SEC.
Supporters of the rival candidates clashed in shankargarh block of Allahabad district. The situation was brought under control after police intervention. The counting was delayed in Kadipur block of sultanpur district as the staff turned late at the counting center. The district magistrate has ordered for action against the employees on counting duty. In Sirathu block of Kaushambi district police had to cane charge as the supporters of rival candidates clashed at the counting table. Several persons were injured in the incident.
In lucknow counting of votes is in progress in Gosianganj, Chinhat, Mohanlalganj, and Malihabad and kakori development blocks.