High tempers, chaos mark panchayat elections in district

Tempers ran high and chaos prevailed at several polling stations as minor incidents of violence were reported during the voting to 4,064 wards of 784 village panchayats in the district on Tuesday.

Following the unopposed election of 157 village panchayats, 213 sarpanches and 3,055 panches, the polling was held to elect 728 sarpanches and 3,336 panches across the state’s biggest and largest district, in terms of area and population.

Almost 60 per cent of the total 12,37,341 voters, including 6,58,736 male, 5,78,584 female, and 21 third gender, exercised their franchise to decide the fate of 9,555 candidates, including 1,968 contestants for the posts of sarpanch and 7,587 nominees for the posts of panch at 1,408 polling booths across 13 blocks in the district.

With Rural Development and Panchayats Minister Tarunpreet Singh Sond hailing from Ludhiana, the opposition parties and leaders cried foul over what they alleged as “misuse of official machinery” and “bogus voting”. However, the minister denied the charges as “false and baseless” and attributed them to “frustration of the losers”.

Peaceful polling, says DEO

District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Jitendra Jorwal claimed total peaceful polling. “No untoward incident was reported and it was all peaceful exercise,” Jorwal said at the end of the polling.

As democracy was lost in the elections, the enthusiasm of the voters notwithstanding, the high and mighty candidates — supported by both ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and opposition parties the Congress and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), and Independents — had their own way. However, the poll was not held on party symbols.

While the AAP supported the candidates at all 4,064 wards, nominees supported by the Congress and the SAD were comparatively less in numbers. Several candidates, however, opted to contest as Independents, without the support of any political party. The polling began at 8 am and continued till 4 pm, the officials said.

According to official figures, 58.9 per cent turnout was recorded till 4 pm, with over 100 polling booths still witnessing voting even after 6 pm. The final polling figures were yet to be compiled by the district election office till the reports last came in.

The counting of votes began immediately after the end of polling and the results were expected by late tonight. With sporadic reports of bogus voting, rigging and minor violence going mostly unnoticed, the elections left a bad taste in the mouths of many. With affected candidates, mostly from the Opposition parties, crying foul, it was the candidates, majority from the ruling AAP, succeeding in their “mission”, who had the last laugh.

But the story was not the same in all village panchayats. Several villages saw peaceful polling and maximum voter turnout.

The polling was disrupted for some time at some booths following certain issues in the ballot papers with rivals trading allegations and counter allegations.

Supporters gave a tough time to the police in several areas, where tension prevailed throughout the day as heavy police force intervened many times to ward off supporters of rival groups to avoid a clash.

Meanwhile, the polling remained at low ebb at the beginning of the day and an average polling of 9 per cent was recorded till 10 am and 24 per cent till 12 noon, but it picked up pace as the day progressed and crossed 41 per cent at 2 pm to reach 58.9 at the close of the day. Several polling booths witnessed queues of voters even after the end of the polling time at 4 pm, when the voter turnout had crossed 70 per cent mark. Sources said several impersonators were held at booths and were let off by officials after the polling was over as no formal complaints were received against them.

Most of the bogus voters, who were detected from several wards, were either young boys or migrant labourers posing as voters.

However, the police denied any such incident while claiming that no case was registered in this regard till the reports last came in. They had to call additional force in some areas to bring the situation under control just before the polling was scheduled to end.

Civil and police officials, led by DEO-cum-Deputy Commissioner Jitendra Jorwal and CP Kuldeep Singh Chahal, remained on foot the whole day. Jorwal and Chahal claimed that the polling was by and large peaceful with no violence reported from any part of the district. Election Observer Arvinder Pal Singh Sandhu also supervised the exercise all through the day.

All 13 ruling MLAs and both ministers Sond and Hardeep Singh Mundian kept boosting their supporters in and around polling booths during the voting while Punjab Congress president and local MP Amrinder Singh Raja Warring also went around villages. The fate of a total 9,555 candidates, including 1,968 contestants for the posts of 728 sarpanches and 7,587 nominees for the posts of 6,391 panches in fray was sealed in the ballot boxes, which were opened to count the votes following the end of the voting.

Enthusiasm writ large

Enthusiastic voters were seen at several places. A bride went to cast her vote in Khanna before solemnising her marriage at a local gurdwara. Voters, especially first-timers, queued up since early morning to cast their vote at several booths. There were reports of a few centenarians also exercising their franchise.