Kolkata: With helicopters hovering above, people turned out in large numbers in West Bengal’s Maoist heartland in phase one of the staggered five-leg panchayat polls yesterday.
Officials described the polls as “more or less peaceful”, though opposition parties complained of “rampant” booth-capturing by the ruling Trinamool Congress.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed satisfaction over the “peaceful voting”.
A State Election Commission official put the polling percentage as 65 percent in Bankura, 60 percent in Purulia and 65 percent in West Midnapore district, respectively, till 5 pm, the scheduled time for voting to end.
However, with hundreds of people waiting in queues in many of the 10,203 seats in the three-tier panchayat bodies spread across the three districts, polling could have continued till 10 pm.
The elections were more or less peaceful, though there were complaints from the three districts about violence and problems in voting, an SEC official said.
There were no arrests, but one person, said to be a Congress activist, was critically injured when he took an arrow in his chest during violent clashes at Sabong in West Midnapore district.
Altogether 25,749 candidates are in fray for 8,273 gram panchayat, 1,799 panchayat samiti and 151 zilla parishad seats in the three districts.
IANS
