Average 72% polling in Vid GP elections

Nagpur: About 72% polling took place on an average in the 3,857 gram panchayats of Vidarbha on Friday. Enthusiasm among voters was evident since morning and long queues were witnessed at polling booths in the afternoon.
No untoward incident took place in the Naxalite-affected districts of Gadchiroli and Gondia. Polling took place extremely peacefully in these areas.
In Nagpur district, around 70% voting took place in 127 gram panchayats.Voter enthusiasm was evident in these elections, which are contested mostly on local issues, till the end. Maximum voting of around 90% took place in Mouda taluka. In Katol taluka, the polling percentage is expected to be over 80%.
The state election commission (SEC) had announced elections for the 130 gram panchayats in the district. However, elections were not necessitated in Sonpur village of Kalmeshwar taluka and Jatamkhora village of Saoner taluka as the candidates were elected unopposed. SEC cancelled elections in Kalal village of Kuhi taluka due to major errors in the electoral rolls. Polling was therefore held for only 127 panchayats on Friday.
There were 485 polling booths and 3,015 candidates in the district. The district administration had deployed 1,455 staffers for elections in thirteen talukas.
Dairy development minister Sunil Kedar cast his vote in his native village Patansaongi while BJP general secretary Chandrashekhar Bawankule exercised his franchise in Koradi.
In Gadchiroli district, around 85% voting is expected to have taken place for 170 panchayats even though polling ended at 3 pm instead of 5.30pm.
In many places, tribals walked five to ten kilometres on foot to exercise their franchise. Dhanora, Korchi and Kurkheda talukas are the maximum affected due to Naxalite menace. Here, government had deployed armed personnel for peaceful polling. There was a heavy bandobast at the base camp.
A few days before polling, the state government had implemented an anti-Naxalite campaign. As a consequence, over 70% polling was witnessed in Chawela, Sode and Salebhatti panchayats by 1.30pm.
In Savana village of Yavatmal district, a candidate was booked by the Mahagaon police for distributing liquor among voters. In Adegaon, under the Mukutban police station, cops raided a farm house and seized a big haul of country liquor meant for distribution among voters. Shevalpimpri village witnessed a clash between two groups and the police had to resort to a mild cane charge.