Nagpur, Jan 14
Around 65 per cent voters exercised their franchise in the district across 127 gram panchayats till 4.30 pm on Friday. Villagers braved corona to cast their vote to elect their representative and were queuing up since morning for voting. The administration had made arrangements on the centres for taking Covid precautions, however it was observed that political party workers outside the polling stations, were neglecting Covid protocols.
Out of the 130 proposed gram panchayats in the district Sonpur (Kalmeshwar) and Jatmakhora (Saoner) gram panchayats had unopposed elections. Besides, the election of Deoli Kala gram panchayat in Kuhi taluka has been cancelled due to confusion in the voter list.
Therefore, polling for 1,086 seats of 127 gram panchayats started at 7.30 am. A total of 3,015 candidates were in the fray.
In most of the gram panchayats in the district, a BJP-backed panel is fighting against the MVA panel. The election process is going on at 485 polling centres in 13 talukas of the district. Till 3.30 pm, 62.65 per cent voters had exercised their right to vote in Kalmeshwar taluka. In Katol taluka (72.28 per cent), Ramtek taluka (63.88 per cent), Parseoni taluka (56 per cent) and Umred taluka (63 per cent) voters had exercised their right to vote.
Ex-ministers, minister exercised their franchise
Animal Husbandry Minister Sunil Kedar voted at Patansaongi (taluka Saoner) and BJP state general secretary Chandrasekhar Bawankule at Koradi (taluka Kamptee) exercised their voting right in the morning.
EVM failure at two places
There were not many complaints about EVM failures during the gram panchayat elections. The polling process was delayed for an hour due to malfunction of EVM at the polling station of Ward No. 1 at Dhamna Linga in Nagpur rural taluka. Voting resumed after the EVM was replaced. One of the voters alleged that the EVM at polling station No. 261 Pota (Chankapur) village in Saoner taluka was malfunctioning, however, the authorities did not find any fault in the EVM after inspection.