Odisha Panchayat Election

A total of 22 persons, including the main accused and his accomplices who are yet to be identified, were detained by the Binjharpur Police after multiple raids in Bachhol Panchayat yesterday in the aftermath of the attack.

Meanwhile, senior BJP leader Pradeep Purohit met the injured youth at the hospital and demanded the arrest of Bhagat immediately. 

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan took to Twitter to condemn the attack on the scribes who were covering the election. 

During the strict enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct a total of 388380.634 litres of liquor have been seized from across 34 police districts between January 19 and February 18, 2022

Some members of the community took away the ballot box from the booth number-14 at Railima village under Sunakhanda panchayat in the district as a mark of protest after they could not exercise their franchise due to missing of their names from the voter list.

Dozens of people barged into the polling chamber and started ransacking the booth. 

The concerned woman also stopped a video journalist from recording any video in and outside the booth before warning him to leave the place at once. She could also be seen issuing open threats to the journalists. 

The mudslinging between the major political parties came on the backdrop of a brutal attack by unidentified miscreants on three journalists of electronic media during the third phase of election

As per reports, some police officers were beaten up by irate villagers at Rajnagar in Kendrapara district following tension at a polling booth this morning.

The third phase voting was underway at 18,495 booths in 1,382 Gram Panchayats under 63 blocks of 29 districts. As many as 679 candidates are in the fray for the 171 Zilla Parishad seats.

Two police personnel sustained multiple injuries in stone pelting incident by the two groups over booth rigging allegations at booth no-14 at Jari Panchayat of Bijharpur block in the district today.

As per preliminary reports, four miscreants entered the booth and decamped with the ballot boxes at between 9: 15 am and 9:30 am today. Later, the miscreants reportedly threw the boxes in a nearby pond.

It is suspected that the explosive was planted by the rebels with an intention to target the security forces and disrupt the election process.The entire area has been cordoned and combing operation has been intensified by the security forces.

The complainant Alok said that three to four persons led by Arun had come to his house searching for his father Ashwini Das who had campaigned for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the panchayat polls.

On the other hand, 5 persons were arrested and forwarded to a court for their alleged involvement in the looting of ballot boxes from three booths in Patsara Block of Jagatsinghpur. 

The State Election Commission (SEC) said it will conduct re-polling at 45 booths, where the election was disturbed during the first two phases of polling. The voting will be held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on February 23

It has been confirmed that the ballot paper was from Zone-II of Naktideula Block. The ballot paper bears a serial number as well as the signature of the presiding officer. 

The Odisha State Election Commission will conduct re-polling at 45 booths across the State on February 23. The voting exercise will be held from 9 am to 3 pm on the scheduled date. 

The delegation urged the Commission to take stringent action against the BJD candidate and the BDO. 

The miscreants were arrested for indulging in violence and thereby disrupting the electoral process

Apart from the proposals to conduct re-polling at 13 places, reports have also been received regarding errors in ballot paper folding at 3 booths, said Secretary to the SEC, Rabindra Sahu.

As per an official release issued by the SEC, Sonepur district recorded the highest 85.67 per cent voter turnout followed by Jharsuguda (85.14), Boudh (84.9), Kalahandi (83.81), Gajapati (82.69) and Gajapati (82.69).

Chulamani Baitharu, the victim, is in the race for the post of Sarpanch of Sunarisikuan Gram Panchayat in Khariar block of Nuapada.

In the third phase, polling will be held for 18,495 Wards, 1382 Gram Panchayats and 171 Zilla Parishad (ZP) seats in 63 blocks of 29 districts. As many as 56,53,405 voters will exercise their franchise in the third phase. 

The percentage of voting is likely to go up after further compilation of the data. “Apart from stray incidents of violence, the overall polls were conducted peacefully across the State,” said Padhi.