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 Thursday.
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 p.m., 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 continue till 10 p.m.
"The elections were more or less peaceful, though we received several complaints from the three districts about violence and problems in voting," the 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.
The victim, Dipankar Ghosh, has been shifted to SSKM Hospital in Kolkata with the arrow still stuck in his chest.
"We may order repoll in four booths - three of them in Sabong and another in Saltola. The decision may be taken tomorrow (Friday) or the day after," the SEC official said.
Long queues were seen before the booths through the day, with women outnumbering men in some of the polling centres.
Helicopters kept vigil from the skies, and 15,000 paramilitary troopers and 35,000 state police personnel including commandoes and elite anti-insurgency force STRACO were on duty to maintain order and peace.
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.
The belt, though now peaceful, is called Junglemahal because of the large stretches of forests where the Maoists held sway for years.
"It's good that polling is going on peacefully in Junglemahal," Banerjee told media persons outside the state secretariat.
But Left Front chairman Biman Bose said polling has been "one-sided" in several areas,and accused the Trinamool of attempts to rig the polls.
"There are places like Bishnupur and Joypur of Bankura district, where the Trinamool drove out our polling agents, and tried to rig votes. In these places, polling has been one-sided," he said.
The Congress alleged "rampant" booth capturing in West Midnapore and Bankura, as well as attacks on its workers and supporters.
"At least 11 booths in West Midnapore including Sabang, Keshpur and Garbeta have been captured by Trinamool Congress. Many other booths too have been captured in the other two districts," said Congress leader Abdul Mannan.
He claimed at least 15 Congress supporters. including three women. were injured in attacks by "goons patronised by the Trinamool".
"In many booths, the central security forces are nowhere to be seen and the state police have been mere spectators. Despite the incidents, no arrests have been made so far. The state government intentionally has been defying the SEC's recommendations, turning the polls into farce," added Mannan.
Already, 1,735 candidates have won uncontested, of whom 1,706 are from the Trinamool, in the three districts.
Altogether 4.4 crore eligible voters will elect 58,865 representatives from 1.77 lakh candidates in the three-tier panchayat bodies of the state - which is considered a model for the rural development system in the country - in the polls. The next phases of polls are slated for July 15, 19, 22 and 25. Counting will take place July 29.
Politically, the polls are significant because of the triangular fights between the Trinamool, the CPI-M-led Left Front and the Congress.
