Polling for Gram Panchayats took off on an embarrassing note for the State Election Commission and district authorities when they were forced to suspend and order re-polling in Ward No. 2 of Hudli Gram Panchayat in Hudli of Belagavi following protests by a woman candidate and her supporters on Friday.
The candidate, Shivagangavva Mutyannavar staged protest when she found that her name was missing from the list of the contestants, following which the polling officers had to suspend the polling and order a re-poll for the affected ward on May 31, Tahsildar Preetam Naslapure told The Hindu .
He said there should have been totally eight contestants in Ward No.2 after the withdrawal of nominations. But, the name of Ms. Mutyannavar was missing from the list. The concerned returning officer had dropped her name after reporting that she had withdrawn her nomination.
To avoid any untoward incident, senior officials and police personnel rushed to the polling station after the protest.
