The voting exercise for the gram panchayat elections in 784 villages of Ludhiana concluded on Tuesday. At 4 pm, the Ludhiana has recorded 58.9 percent voting in these elections.
District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner Jitendra Jorwal inspected the polling exercise at various booths. There are 941 village panchayats in Ludhiana, out of which 157 panchayats were elected unanimously and voting held in the remaining 784 villages. 1408 booths were set up for the voting.
Excluding 157 unopposed elected panchayats, there were around 1077485 voters including 573555 male, 503911 female and 19 third genders in the district. At 4 pm, around 634638 voters had exercised their right to vote and around 35283 voters were in queue at that time.
The voting began at 8 am as a large number of people voted to strengthen the grass root democracy. Lauding the role played by people across the district for smooth and peaceful conduct of polls, the Deputy Commissioner stated that the district has not witnessed any untoward incident during the polling and also thanked the poll duty staff, security personnel for their dedication to perform duty to ensure peaceful conduct of panchayat polls.
SUKHPREET SINGH
LUDHIANA
A tense situation developed outside the Government Senior Secondary School polling station in Ayali Khurd village on Tuesday. A large crowd, including candidates and their supporters, gathered and got into heated arguments. They accused each other of trying to influence voters inside the polling station. In response, the police blocked candidates from entering the polling station.
{{/usCountry}}A tense situation developed outside the Government Senior Secondary School polling station in Ayali Khurd village on Tuesday. A large crowd, including candidates and their supporters, gathered and got into heated arguments. They accused each other of trying to influence voters inside the polling station. In response, the police blocked candidates from entering the polling station.
{{/usCountry}}Ayali Khurd voters said they cast their votes hoping for development in the village, which is currently in poor condition. Seven candidates are contesting for the post of sarpanch. Many of their supporters and friends gathered outside the polling station and argued, accusing one another of unfairly influencing voters.
Neelam Kaur, one of the candidates, said, “People from outside the village came here to influence the voters. In the morning, I saw candidates and their supporters inside the polling station, urging voters to vote for them.”
Another candidate, Gurpreet Kaur, raised the same issue. “I informed the authorities about candidates influencing voters inside the polling station and requested the police to stop them,” she said.
Rachpal Singh, Assistant Sub-Inspector on duty at the polling station, said, “In the morning, candidates complained about voter influence. After that, we stopped all candidates from entering the polling station, and we are monitoring the situation outside.”
Residents of Ayali Khurd expressed their desire for change. They are unhappy with the current condition of the village, especially the lack of basic amenities like drinking water and proper roads.
Sandeep Kumar, a resident, said, “There are no streetlights, and the parks are in bad shape. We’ve heard that grants were given to improve these, but nothing has been done. Even the roads are in poor condition. We voted for someone who will bring real change.”
Another resident, Swaran Singh, added, “We’ve raised our issues with the authorities and the local MLA, but nothing has improved. The village water tank broke three days ago and hasn’t been repaired. We need a new leader who will improve our village.”