79% TURNOUT AT ELECTIONS FOR 12,711 VILLAGE PANCHAYATS

MUMBAI: Termed as a litmus test for the ruling party as well as the Opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a year after the changed political equations in the state, polls for more than half of the state’s gram panchayats were held on Friday. The voting turnout for the panchayat polls was 79%, according to the State Election Commission (SEC). Counting of the votes will take place on Monday.

Of the 14,234 panchayats for which elections were announced last month, 12,711 saw voting on Friday, while 162 panchayats in Gadchiroli district will go to polls on January 20. Most of the remaining panchayats saw members either elected unopposed, partially or fully. Elections to two gram panchayats in Nandurbar and Nashik were cancelled by the SEC, after a probe found the posts of sarpanch and panchayat members to be auctioned from among the candidates.

According to the records, 214,880 candidates were in the fray for 125,709 seats, for which 356,221 nominations were filed and 26,718 members were elected unopposed.

Though the gram panchayat elections are not fought on party symbols, political parties field their workers to wrest power in the village bodies.

In Thane district, gram panchayat elections saw an estimated turnout of over 80% as per the district election commission. Voting was highest in Bhiwandi (75% by 3.30pm) followed by Ambernath (74%), while the lowest turnout was seen in Kalyan (60%).

A scuffle between two groups was reported in Khoni gram panchayat in Kalyan taluka. Manpada police have filed a non-cognisable offence against three people who were found distributing cash in Khoni village on Thursday night, ahead of the election. Apart from this, no major glitches or incidents of violence were reported across the district. A

total of 1.78 lakh voters voted across the district, including 85,627 women voters and 92,986 men voters till 3.30pm.