BHUBANESWAR: The fourth phase panchayat polls on Tuesday recorded a voters turnout of 73 per cent amid sporadic violence reported from different places across the State.
State Election Commissioner (SEC) Aditya Prasad Padhi told mediapersons that poll-related violence was reported in four to five places.
Steps for re-polling will be taken at the places after receiving reports from the district collectors. The highlight of the fourth phase polling was the impressive 75 per cent voter turnout in Nagada village of Jajpur district which was in news for extreme poverty and malnutrition a few years back.
Similarly, 80 per cent of the voters exercised their franchise in Maoist-affected Trilochanpur village in Niyamgiri. The SEC said polling was conducted in the two places after a gap of 20 years as they were inaccessible owing to lack of communication.
Meanwhile, six persons including four women were injured in a clash between two groups at Bideipur village in Basudevpur block of Bhadrak district. Besides, presiding and polling officers were also beaten up by villagers over alleged ballot-box tampering in Ward 10 of Kumarpur panchayat in Basudevpur.
Besides, a BJD worker Pradyumna Tripathy sustained critical injuries in poll-related violence in Panikipalli area under Sohela block of Bargarh district during the fourth phase of the polls.
Tripathy was rushed to Sohela CHC and later shifted to VSS Medical College and Hospital, Burla. Clashes between BJD and BJP workers were reported from several areas of the State. Voters of several villages in Malkangiri district boycotted the polls.