Sankhli pulls out more voters than Ponda
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 12 May 2013 22:54 IST
Voting in Ponda municipal poll
Sankhli municipality voted more enthusiastically than Ponda municipality, though response in both the civic elections was more than expected.
Sankhli recorded almost 85 per cent polling while Ponda voting was around 73 per cent.
Results of both the civic bodies would be declared tomorrow.
Ponda has almost double the voters than Sankhli – 15,500 against 7148 voters.
Over 11,000 voters came out to vote in Ponda municipality to elect 14 councilors from among 60 candidates.
In Sankhli, the voter turnout was around 6000, to elect 11 councilors from among 53 candidates.
Ponda voting pattern remained as found in any election, with around 20 per cent voting by 10 am, above 40 by 1 pm and picking up after 3 pm, ultimately recording 73.32 per cent.
Comparatively, Sankhli remained dull in the morning and almost all the candidates had to pull up their sleeves to get voters out of their houses.
As a result, the polling ended with record voting of 84.72 per cent.
“Election was totally peaceful and trouble-free without any major untoward incident”, said Dr M Modassir, the state election commissioner.
He however admitted there were minor verbal clashes in ward 4 of Ponda, from where former minister Ravi Naik’s son Roy is contesting.
“It was immediately resolved by our observers”, said Modassir.
Though not officially on party lines, the battle in both the municipalities is between the Congress and the BJP.
Both Ponda and Sankhli Assembly seats are presently represented by the ruling BJP-led government.
MGP MLA Lavoo Mamledar is crossing swords with former Ponda MLA Ravi’s Naik’s panel.
In Sankhli, BJP MLA Pramod Sawant is clashing with former Congress MLA Pratap Gawas.
