PANCHAYAT ELECTIONS: 725 sarpanches, 3,254 panches elected in Ludhiana district

Bharowal Khurd residents boycott poll; three posts of sarpanch, 82 of panch remain vacant; 69.02 % polling recorded across 13 blocks, Samrala tops with 77.53% voter turnout, Ludhiana-1 logs lowest 59.1%

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, Updated At : 09:36 AM Oct 17, 2024 IST

Newly elected sarpanch Prabhdeep Kaur (C), along with her supporters, from Jasdev Singh Nagar gram panchayat pays obeisance at a gurdwara in Ludhiana. TRIBUNE PHOTO: HIMANSHU MAHAJAN

The high-stakes panchayat poll process culminated on Wednesday with the formal declaration of results for the posts of 725 sarpanch and 3,254 panch, who were elected in the district on Tuesday.

Besides the election of 725 sarpanches and 3,254 panches, as many as 213 sarpanches and 3,055 panches had earlier been elected unopposed in the state’s biggest and largest district, in terms of area and population. Also, 157 of the total 941 village panchayats had been elected unanimously by the respective villagers without going for the poll.

With this, three posts of sarpanch and 82 posts of panch were left vacant, for which the bypoll will be held at a later stage, the district administration has said.

While voters of Bharowal Khurd village in the Sidhwan Bet block boycotted the Tuesday poll, alleging discrepancies in electoral rolls, the elections to the posts of sarpanch at Dalla and Pona villages in the Jagraon block had been stayed by District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Jitendra Jorwal following objections raised to the nomination papers and no objection certification (NOC) filed by contestants to the posts.

The poll to elect the panch from Ward 4 at Bhangla village in the Samrala block was countermanded following the death of a contestant, Harbans Singh.

The bypoll to elect the remaining three sarpanches and 82 panches would be conducted as per the schedule to be notified by the State Election Commission, Jorwal said.

Sharing the final voter turnout figures, the DEO said 69.02 per cent polling was recorded in the panchayat poll with 7,43,680 of the total 10,77,485 voters exercising their franchise to elect 725 sarpanches and 3,254 panches across 13 blocks in the district.

While the highest of 77.53 per cent polling was registered in the Samrala block, the lowest of 59.1 per cent turnout was logged in Ludhiana-1 block.

Among other blocks, Dehlon recorded 71.67 per cent polling, Doraha 74.38 per cent, Jagraon 64.88 per cent, Khanna 75.39 per cent, Ludhiana-2 66.02 per cent, Machhiwara 74.87 per cent, Malaud 77.24 per cent, Pakhowal 71.01 per cent, Raikot 72.54 per cent, Sidhwan Bet 72.7 per cent and Sudhar block registered 68.39 per cent voter turnout.