Polling peaceful in Ambala, Kurukshetra

Ambala, November 9

Barring sporadic incidents of EVMs developing technical snags and missing names from voters lists, the polling went off peacefully for the zila parishad and block samiti in Ambala and Kurukshetra on Wednesday.

While 122 candidates are in the fray from 15 wards of zila parishad in Ambala, 135 are in the fray from 17 wards of Kurukshetra. For the block samiti, 469 candidates are testing their luck from 123 wards in Ambala while in Kurukshetra 532 candidates are in the fray from 135 wards.

The voters started turning up to exercise their franchise early in the morning. Around 69.4 per cent voters in Ambala and 72 per cent voters in Kurukshetra exercised their franchise.

The voting took place at 599 and 652 polling booths in Ambala and Kurukshetra, respectively.

The voters, especially the youngsters, said they kept the development of the rural areas and improvement of infrastructure in mind while casting their votes besides ensuring that the candidate was educated and could raise the local issues effectively. Ravinder, a young voter, said, “I have cast my votes for better development and infrastructure of my village. We have also tried to ensure that the elected a person is educated and maintains a harmony in the village.”

Kiran, a first-time voter, said, “Development and proper sanitation of rural areas were the prime agendas.”

Meanwhile, the voting was affected for an hour at Dhurkara village. JJP spokesman Vivek Chaudhary said instead of Ward 9, EVM of Ward 6 was installed at a booth. He demanded action against the official behind the lapse. Residents held a protest, blocked the road for some time and threatened to boycott polling if the EVM was not changed. Later, the machine was replaced and the voting went off peacefully.

A total of eight candidates including BJP’s Mandeep Rana, AAP’s Makhan Singh, INLD’s Dimple Kumar and JJP-supported Paramjeet Singh are in the fray from Ward 9.

ADC Sachin Gupta said, “Due to some miscommunication, the wrong EVM got installed at a booth. It was later changed and the polling went off peacefully.”

In Fatehgarh, some villagers alleged that the names of around 30 voters were missing from the voters list.

District Revenue Officer Captain Vinod Sharma, who was the election observer, said “There was a supplementary list in which the names were already mentioned. The list was provided and the matter was resolved.”

Deputy Commissioner Dr Priyanka Soni said, “A couple of issues that cropped up in Durkhara and Fatehgarh were timely resolved and the polling went off peacefully at all the polling stations.”