PANJIM/MARGAO: The by-elections to three Zilla Panchayat constituencies – Reis Magos, Cortalim and Davorlim saw poor voter turnout as it recorded only 46.66 per cent of voting.
As per the information provided by the State Election Commission (SEC), Reis Magos reported 43.94 per cent voter turnout while Davorlim saw 50.52 per cent people voting. In Cortalim 45.07 per cent people exercised their right to vote.
The counting of votes will take place on October 18.
Of the total 55,519 voters, the three constituencies polled 25,905 votes. More number of female voters -13,055 came out to vote as against the male voters – 12,850.
The elections were held on party lines. Total 15 candidates are in fray of which seven are in Davorlim while four each in Reis Magos and Cortalim. Congress has fielded candidates in all three ZP constituencies while, BJP and AAP in two constituencies each.
As per SEC, the voting took place peacefully across all 74 polling booths. SEC said that no untoward incidents were reported during the entire polling process.
Meanwhile, it was a relatively quiet day of voting for the Davorlim even as the BJP top leaders made their presence felt as they hoped to retain the seat.
The Davorlim bypoll was necessitated as the two-time ZP member Ulhas Tuenkar won the Assembly seat from Navelim. Tuenkar’s victory marked history as it was the first time BJP won from this constituency. However, all eyes are on Tuenkar to see if he can ensure that BJP doesn’t lose the ZP seat and the MLA himself was leading the campaign in Davorlim.
While BJP top leaders had also campaigned in the earlier days, BJP State President Sadanand Tanavade visited Davorlim again on Sunday and interacted with the BJP cadre who appeared upbeat about their chances.
A few days ago, independent candidate Bhagwan Rekdar joined BJP along with a panchayat member to avoid any division of votes for BJP’s ZP candidate Paresh Naik.
