Panchayat poll: 70% voter turnout in Dharwad

Barring an incident of voters protesting against a presiding officer in a booth, the polling for zilla panchayat and taluk panchayats in Dharwad district was peaceful on Monday. When the reports last came in seventy per cent of the voters had exercised their franchise in the district.

Dharwad, Kundgol and Hubli taluks had recorded 65 per cent voting each while it was 75 per cent each in Navalgund and Kundgol taluks. In several booths in Kundgol and Kalghatgi taluks the voting continued even after 5 pm as the voters were waiting in queue before the expiry of the deadline.

Booth number 121 at Marewad in Dharwad taluk witnessed trouble when the voters failed to produce any document to prove their identity and the presiding officer G M Patil stuck to the rulebook. Only two persons out of 742 had caste their vote till 10.30 am. The villagers complained that they had not been provided with any document to prove their identity and said their names had been either miss spelt or wrongly entered in the voters' list.

They demanded that the presiding officer should allow them to vote without asking for any proof of identity. The presiding officer showed them the rulebook and said there were 19 documents listed as proof of identity and the voters could bring at least one of them.

The villagers pointed out that the presiding officer at another booth in the village had allowed voting relying on the polling agents who identified the voters. When G M Patil did not budge, the voters gathered outside the booth and started shouting against him. Police had to push the voters out of the school compound.

Senior route officers who rushed to the booth advised the presiding officer to allow the voters to caste their votes and rely on the agents for identification. Tahasildar Nadaf arrived with an officer to replace G M Patil and the voting began at 10.45 a.m.

Elsewhere in the district, the polling, which started on a sedate note, picked up as the day passed. By 4 p.m. nearly 45 per cent of the voters had caste their votes. The morning hours saw women coming out in large number to exercise their franchise. Monday being an off day for agricultural work the male voters arrived to the polling stations late in the afternoon.

Women waited for their turn in long queue at Tadakod, Garag, Uppin Betageri, Kotur in Dharwad taluk, Byahatti and Sulla in Hubli taluk, Shalavadi in Navalgund taluk and Hirehonnihalli in Kalghatgi taluk.

It was a common scene throughout the district that the candidates unmindful of the election code of conduct brought the voters in private vehicles and dropped them right in front of the polling booths. In Tadakod, voters were seen casting their votes in 'high spirits'.

Morab in Navalgund taluk, which is considered hypersensitive, witnessed peaceful polling. Police security was tight at Shalavadi where there is a tough triangular fight involving the Congress, JD (S) and BJP. Law minister H K Patil visited Narendra, Uppin Betageri, Kotur and Garag centress.

For the 22 seats in Zilla Panchayat there are 144 candidates in the frey. Dharwad taluk, which has a maximum of six seats, has 38 candidates fighting with each other. Kalghatgi and Kundgol, which have four seats each have 27 candidates each in the contest while Navalgund and Hubli taluks have 29 and 23 candidates respectively for four seats each. There are 75 seats in five taluk panchayats in the district with 37 reserved for women.

The counting of votes will be on 27 December at respective taluk head quarters from 8 a.m.