Women wait to cast their votes for the Punjab gram panchayat elections, in Jalandhar.
Credit: PTI Photo
Chandigarh: Polling to elect gram panchayat members concluded amid tight security arrangements in Punjab on Tuesday, officials said here.
They said voting for the posts of "sarpanch" and "panch" through ballots started at 8 am and concluded till 4 pm.
After the polling, the votes will be counted at the polling stations, the officials said.
A voter turnout of more than 45 per cent was recorded, they added.
A firing incident was reported outside a polling booth in Sohan Sain Bhagat village in Tarn Taran district, leaving a man injured. Mandeep Singh was rushed to a hospital where his condition was stated to be out of danger.
A police official said a scuffle took place between two groups, adding that the matter is being investigated.
Agriculture Minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian, along with his son, cast his vote in Khudian village in Muktsar district while Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains exercised his franchise in Gambhirpur village in Anandpur Sahib.
Talking to reporters, Bains appealed to people to turn out in large numbers to cast their votes in order to elect those who would work for the development of the villages.
The State Election Commission cancelled the polling in Dalla and Pona villages in Ludhiana's Jagraon sub-division due to certain technical reasons. The next date of polling in these villages would be announced later, the officials said.
A total of 19,110 polling booths, including 1,187 marked as hyper-sensitive, were set up for the election. The state has 13,225 gram panchayats.
The post of "sarpanch" was vacant in 9,398 gram panchayats, an official said, adding that 3,798 candidates were already been elected unopposed for the posts of "sarpanch".
Elderly people, women and youngsters were seen standing in queues outside several polling booths in the morning.
The polls were held without symbols of political parties as a consequence of the Punjab Panchayati Raj (Amendment) Bill, 2024 passed by the Assembly last month.
A total of 1.33 crore people were eligible to vote in the election.
There were 25,588 candidates in the fray for the posts of "sarpanch" and 80,598 contested the polls for the posts of "panch", the officials said.
Around 96,000 personnel were deputed on election duty.
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann appealed to people on Monday to exercise their franchise.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday dismissed a bunch of petitions filed against the panchayat polls. The pleas were filed on several grounds, including challenging the ward demarcation, delimitation, regarding grievances about poll symbols, extension of time for nominations and rejection of nomination papers.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to stay the ongoing panchayat polls on grounds of alleged irregularities in the nomination process, saying there will be "chaos" if courts start staying elections on polling day.