Panchayat poll concludes in Nagaon

A Correspondent

NAGAON: Panchayat poll in Nagaon was conducted on Wednesday and according to sources, the voting percentage in the district as well as the subdivision was approximately 60 per cent. It is expected that the percentage will increase as many units of polling and presiding officials were yet to submit the exact reports to the authority concerned till filing of this report.

Due to various reasons like incongruous ballots papers and discrepancies in party symbol of some candidates, voting process was disrupted for hours at some polling stations like Hatipara LP School and Borpathori Binapani Girls’ High School under Deodhor Gram Panchayat in Nagaon Sadar LAC. Due to seal and signature of the presiding officer on the back side of the ballot papers, the party symbols of some candidates on the ballot papers were tainted with ink of the seal due to which an unexpected controversy took place in and around the two polling stations.

Subsequently, the authority concerned rushed to the stations and disposed around 1,200 ballot papers and issued new ballots to both polling stations. On the other hand, there was another controversy over the symbol of the BJP against a Congress candidate on ballots papers at Borbai Gram Panchayat in Barhampur constituency for which the presiding official stopped the entire voting procedure in the gram panchayat for hours until the ballots were replaced. Fights among party supporters of the Congress, AGP and BJP took place at various places like Rupahihat, Juria, Puranigudam and Samaguri in the district. In connection with such incidents, police picked up one gram panchayat president candidate from Juria, sources added further.

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