More than 80% turn up to vote in second round of rural polls

Gurgaon: More than 81% of votes were polled on Saturday in the second round of panchayat election to elect sarpanch and panch in Gurgaon district. The state average was 80%.
In the first round on November 10, more than 76% turnout was reported in Gurgaon.
Out of 2.45 lakh eligible voters in the city, around 1.95 lakh turned up for voting at 291 polling booths in Farukhnagar, Gurgaon, Pataudi and Sohna. Farukhnagar block recorded 86.6% voting, Gurgaon saw 83.6% voting, Patuadi block logged 79.2% voting and Sohna had 79% voting. Polling was conducted to elect 157 sarpanch and 1,406 panch from different panchayats of Gurgaon. The voting started from 7am and continued till 6pm. “The voting percentage was marginally higher as compared to the first round when voting was for zila parishad and panchayat samitis,” said deputy commissioner Nishat Yadav.
The voting for the second round was scheduled for 9 districts—Ambala, Charkhi Dadri, Gurgaon, Karnal, Kurukshetra, Rewari, Rohtak, Sirsa and Sonipat. Sirsa topped the chart with 84.8% of voting while Sonipat recorded lowest of 74.9% of voting.
In the second phase, (conducted in two rounds on November 10 & 12) 57 blocks in 9 districts were to elect 2,683 sarpanch, 25,655 panch, 1,244 panchayat samiti and 158 zila parishad.