65% voter turnout in Odisha urban local body elections amid stray violence

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BHUBANESWAR: Around 65% of Odisha’s 40.55 lakh voters cast their votes in the polls to 109 urban local bodies of Odisha including three municipal corporations Bhubaneswar, Cuttack and Berhampur amid reports of violence in parts of the state.

By 5 pm when voting for the 109 urban bodies ended for the election of 1825 councillors and corporators as well as 109 chairpersons and mayors, about 65% of the voters had cast their votes, election officials said.

In Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, 50% voter turnout was recorded till 5 pm, much higher than the 42% turnout in 2014 and 38.29% in 2009. In Cuttack Municipal Corporation, 65% polling was recorded while in Berhampur Municipal Corporation, just about 47% cast their vote, said state election commissioner Aditya Prasad Padhi.

The results will be announced on Saturday.

This is the first time that direct elections are taking place for the posts of chairpersons and mayors of the urban bodies.

The polls were overdue in most municipalities since December 2018 and in some others from July 2019 as they were delayed after a PIL filed in Orissa high court in 2018 alleged that the reservation of seats for SC, ST and OBC was more than 50% in the 2012 panchayat elections, 2013 civic polls and the 2017 panchayat elections, a violation of the 2010 Supreme Court order. The high court in 2018 asked the government not to exceed 50% reservation of seats for the SC, ST and OBC in the non-scheduled areas.

More than 22,000 polling officials were deployed for the conduct of the election process. As many as 195 platoons of the police force comprising Odisha State Armed Police, India Reserve Battalion and SSB were deployed to conduct free and fair polls.

Though voting was by and large peaceful, incidents of violence were reported from several parts.

In Dhamnagar area of Bhadrak district, a youth was stabbed in front of booth No-16 under ward No-9 of Dhamnagar Notified Area Council. Ramesh Lenka (28), a BJP supporter of Bazaar Sahi picked up a fight with workers of another party following which he was stabbed in the stomach by the rival side. He was rushed to the district headquarters hospital at Bhadrak which said that his condition was critical.

In Nayagarh district, Sisir Kumar Sahu, the vice-chairman of Khandapada panchayat Samiti was allegedly attacked by his political rivals in front of a booth at Khandapada Women’s College. Sahu alleged that he was attacked by independent candidate Arati Pradhan’s husband and his associate.

In western Odisha’s Bolangir district, 2 persons including a BJD councillor and a candidate were injured during a clash between Congress and BJD workers over alleged rigging in Jhankarpada. In Patnagarh town of Bolangir, BJD MLA Saroj Meher’s brother Pradeep Meher was reportedly assaulted by a group of BJP workers when he was allegedly distributing money to people. Later, he was rescued by some BJD workers.

In Ganjam district, three BJP workers were injured and a car of a BJP leader was vandalised in Chikiti NAC area allegedly by BJD rivals. In Cuttack too, a man was thrashed by a rival group for allegedly distributing cash to voters in Ward No-53.

Reports of EVM glitches came from several booths of Bhubaneswar as well as districts such as Nuapada. In Bhubaneswar, polling was delayed in a few booths while in Nuapada district, polling was delayed at booth no 12 of Nuapada Notified Area Council due to EVM glitches.

EVM glitches also delayed the start of polling at booth-10 in G.Udayagiri NAC of Gajapati district. Polling was delayed in booth-3 in Ward-3 of Athagarh in Cuttack district due to an issue in the EVM.

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