79 per cent voter turn-out in gram panchayat polls in Maha

Candidates are allotted election symbolsfrom a list of free symbols.The poll panel had earlier this week canceled theelection process in Umrane and Khondamali gram panchayats inNashik and Nandurbar districts, respectively, after itreceived evidence of auctioning of posts of sarpanchs andother members.The Commission also said that voting for 162 grampanchayats in six talukas of Gadchiroli, a Naxal-hit district,will be held on January 20.Due to several such reasons, voting was held for12,711 gram panchayats on Friday.

The elections to 12,711 grampanchayats spread across 34 districts in Maharashtra saw onaverage 79 per cent voting on Friday, State ElectionCommissioner UPS Madan said.

Elections to 14,234 gram panchayats were announced onDecember 11 last year, but in some local governing bodieselections were held completely or partially unopposed.

The gram panchayats are considered the third tier ofgovernance. Elections for them are not held on party lines,using party symbols. Candidates are allotted election symbolsfrom a list of free symbols.

The poll panel had earlier this week canceled theelection process in Umrane and Khondamali gram panchayats inNashik and Nandurbar districts, respectively, after itreceived evidence of auctioning of posts of sarpanchs andother members.

The Commission also said that voting for 162 grampanchayats in six talukas of Gadchiroli, a Naxal-hit district,will be held on January 20.

''Due to several such reasons, voting was held for12,711 gram panchayats on Friday. In Gadchiroli, votes will becounted on January 22. In the remaining districts, countingwill take place on January 18,'' the SEC's statement said.

On Friday, polling was held for 1,25,709 seats, forwhich nominations had been received from 3,56,221 candidates.

A total of 2,41,598 candidates were in the race postscrutiny and withdrawal of nominations. As many as 26,718 ofthese candidates faced no rivals, so they would be declaredelected unopposed, the statement said.

In all 2,14,880 candidates were in the fray actuallyfor the polls held on Friday.

The voting took place between 7:30 am to 5:30 pm,except for four talukas in Gadchiroli and Gondia where pollingended at 3 pm.

The districts and the district-wise number of grampanchayats where polling was held are as follows: Thane (143),Palghar (3), Raigad (78), Ratnagiri (360), Sindhudurg (66),Nashik (565), Dhule (182), Jalgaon (687), Ahmednagar (705),Nandurbar (64), Pune (649), Solapur (593), Satara (652),Sangli (142), Kolhapur (386), Aurangabad (579), Beed (111),Nanded (1,013), Osmanabad (382), Parbhani (498), Jalna (446),Latur (383), Hingoli (421), Amravati (537), Akola (214),Yavatmal (925), Washim (152), Buldhana (498), Nagpur (127),Wardha (50), Chandrapur (604), Bhandara (145), Gondia (181)and Gadchiroli (170).

The Commission allowed those suffering fromcoronavirus infection or those in quarantine to cast theirvote half-an-hour before the polling ended.

The gram panchayat polls were held in the wake of theruling Shiv Sena-NCP-Congress alliance's victory in thegraduates' and teachers' constituencies in the LegislativeCouncil elections that took place last year. The alliance wonfour out of six seats, while an Independent candidate and theBJP won one each.

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