UP Panchayat polls: Miscreants loot ballot boxes in Agra, investigation underway

"Incident occurred after supporters of two candidates clashed. Miscreants are being identified," District Magistrate of Agra Prabhu N Singh said.

Miscreants looted ballot boxes from a polling booth during the first phase of the panchayat polls, in Fatehabad area in Uttar Pradesh's Agra on Thursday.

Police personnel in action after alleged loot of ballot boxes following clashes between two groups during Panchayat polls, in Agra. (PTI)

"Incident occurred after supporters of two candidates clashed. Miscreants are being identified," District Magistrate of Agra Prabhu N Singh said.

The DM also said that they will be requesting a re-polling in the area.

"Investigation into the matter is underway," he said.

Ayodhya, Agra, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Jaunpur, Jhansi, Prayagraj, Bareilly, Bhadohi, Mahoba, Rampur, Raebareli, Shravasti, Sant Kabir Nagar, Saharanpur, Hardoi and Hathras are the districts that underwent polling in the first phase of Uttar Pradesh Panchayat polls on Thursday.

More than 3.33 lakh candidates in the fray in over 2.21 lakh seats in the first phase for the posts of zila panchayat (district council) members, kshetra (block) panchayat members, village panchayat heads and wards, as per the data of the Uttar Pradesh State Election Commission (UP SEC).

As per UP SEC, for the post of zila panchayat members, 11,442 candidates are in the fray from 779 wards, while as many as 81,747 candidates are contesting in 19,313 wards of kshetra panchayats and for the gram panchayat, there are 1,14,142 candidates for 14,789 posts. For gram panchayat wards, there are 1,26,613 candidates for 1,86,583 seats.