SANKHALI/PONDA: An estimated 81.10 per cent polling was recorded in the Ponda and Sankhali Municipal Councils on Friday.
A record 87.56 per cent polling was recorded in the 10 wards of Sankhali Municipal Council while 74.66 per cent voters turnout was registered in the 13 wards of Ponda Municipal Council.
In Sankhali, 6070 voters out of a total of 6,932 cast their votes while, of a total of 14,271 electorate, 10,653 exercised their franchise in Ponda.
Four candidates namely Pravin Blaggan (Ward No. V) and Riyaz Khan (Ward No. VIII) of Sankhali Municipal Council and Vishwantah Dalvi (Ward No. VII) and Vidya Punalekar (Ward No. XIII) of Ponda Municipal Council have already been declared elected unopposed.
In Sankhali, Ward No. XII recorded the highest 96 per cent of polling followed by 93.58 per cent in Ward No. VII and 92.96 per cent in Ward No. XI.
The polling recorded in other wards is as under: Ward I — 85.89%; Ward II — 81.50%; Ward III — 88.97%, Ward IV — 83.78%, Ward VI — 86.62%; Ward IX — 84.58% and Ward X — 86.96%.
In Ponda, the highest 81.03 per cent voting percentage was reported in Ward I and the lowest voting percentage of 68.72 per cent was registered in Ward IX.
The polling recorded in other wards are follows: Ward II — 71.62%, Ward III — 72.83%, Ward IV — 75.41%, Ward V — 75.82%, Ward VI — 77.07%, Ward VIII — 75.19%, Ward X –75.97%, Ward XI — 74.18%, Ward XII — 72.98%; Ward XIV — 78.95% and Ward XV — 70.71%.
The fate of 74 candidates, 43 in Ponda and 31 in Sankhali will be known on Sunday, when votes will be taken up for counting.
In Sankhali, the panel backed by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Together for Sankhali headed by former chairperson and councillor Dharmesh Saglani are the main contenders. Sawant is trying to wrest the control of the Sankhali Municipal Council.
In Ponda, the prestige of BJP as well as Agriculture Minister Ravi Naik is at stake with his sons sitting chairperson Ritesh and Roy are contesting from Ward No. V and Ward No. I respectively.
Though the elections are not fought on party lines, the main fight is between the panel backed by the BJP and Dr Ketan Bhatikarof MGP and Rajesh Verenkar of Congress. All of them expressed confident of winning candidates supported by them.
At some polling booths situated near Sadar-Ponda and Upper Bazaar there was no ramp and it caused inconvenience to senior citizens and Persons with Disabilities (PwDs).
According to the State Election Commission (SEC) the polling was largely peaceful in both the municipal councils except stray incidents. At Sankhali, the police detained a Congress supporter and recovered cash of Rs 40,000 from him.
