Bihar: Firing at polling booth in Aurangabad during panchayat election first phase voting
As the first phase of Panchayat elections in Bihar's Aurangabad commenced today, firing was reported from the district in booth numbers 144 and 145 of the Bsaini village. The electoral officials claimed that the firing took place in a bid to capture booths and do bogus voting in favour of a particular candidate. No one was reported injured in the firing.
The security personnel present at the booth managed to take control of the situation. Following the incident, many voters, who had assembled in queues to vote, ran away.
Barring a few sporadic incidents, overall peaceful polling was reported in all these districts. There were complaints of EVM malfunctioning from some places. The voting process was disrupted for some time after information about stone pelting and aerial firing was recieved.
On getting information about this incident, SDM and SDPO reached the booth and five people involved in stone pelting and firing were taken into custody.
The first phase of voting for 151 Panchayats in 10 districts is currently underway. All these districts are naxal affected districts like Aurangabad, Rohtas, Jamui, Arwal, Gaya, Kaimur, Nawada, Banka, Jahanabad and Munger.
According to an official of the Election Commission of Bihar, EVMs are being used for voting for the four posts such as Panchayat member, Mukhiya, Panchayat committee member and member of district council. The ballot box is being used for voting of Panch and Sarpanch.
The State Election Commission has deployed security personnel to conduct a peaceful poll in 10 districts. A total of 156 polling stations fall under the Naxal affected areas.
In the first phase of the Panchayat elections, 15,328 candidates had filed nominations for various posts. Of these, candidates were elected unopposed for 858 posts, while no candidate filed nomination for 72 posts.
