Second phase of Jharkhand panchayat polls see 74 percent voting

Ranchi, November 28 : The second phase of the thee-tier panchayat polls in Jharkhand on Saturday witnessed a record turnout of more than 74 percent voters, officials said. According to officials, the polling was held in 74 blocks of 23 districts in the state and 74.06 percent voters exercised their franchise. The turnout in the first phase of polling, held on November 22, was 72 percent. In the second phase, the total number of voters were 48.18 lakh. The polling began at 7 a.m. and ended at 3 p.m. It took place for a total of 18,383 posts including zilla parishad members, panchayat samiti members, mukhiya (village headman) and gram panchayat members for which 40,353 candidates were in the fray. The total number of posts for gram panchayat members were 15,419, for mukhiya 1,269, panchayat samiti member 1,536 posts and that for zilla parishad member 159. Elaborate security arrangements were made for peaceful polling.More than 54,000 security personnel of the state police and paramilitary forces were deployed.(IANS)