A large number of women braved the Naxalite threat to come out and cast their votes in Bagoder. Picture by Gautam Dey

nHazaribagh: Voters emerged out of the red shadow after 15 years in Paharpur village in Barkatha Assembly segment. The villagers had not been able to cast their votes because of the rebel threat.

Subdivision openly admitted that lack of security and improper arrangements were the main reasons. Subdivisional officer Ravindra Prasad Singh said heavy deployment of forces had resulted in good percentage of voting in this village, the first time.

Though Singh refused to say anything on voting after 15 years, he admitted that after Independence, voting was satisfactory this time. Singh said a company of BSF was deployed and arrangements made smooth polling. The village falls under Gorhar police station with more than 100 houses. Sources said the village is nearly 80 km from the district headquarters. The polling party did not visit the booths for the 15 years.

Earlier, there was no security cover for the polling officials and they shied away from the village.

The SDO said moderate polling was also reported from Jawahar Pahad of Gorhar, where villagers rarely voted because of poor security.Deserted

nDumri: Till 3 pm, not a single voter turned up at three booths in Tingrakhurd and Tengrakala villages of Pordaag under Dumri Assembly constituency although the election crew and paramilitary forces kept round-the-clock vigil. The three booths are located within a distance of 500 metres. Naxalite wall writings ??boycott vote or face bullets?? kept the residents indoor. Similarly, the turnout was poor in the Nawadih area of Uparghaat in Dumri panchayat, where several villages of Kanjkiro, Udgadda, Parsabera, Kuriabera, Degagadha, Kacho, Goniato, Palamu and Penk.

nMedninagar: Jharkhand state general secretary of Janata Dal (United) Murari Pandey was arrested along with three party activists on charges of trying to influence voters in Daltonganj during the first phase of polling today.

Pandey was arrested from Kaniram Middle School booth where he was allegedly trying to woo voters in favour of his party candidates, additional district magistrate (law and order) Khurshid Anwar said.

Three of Pandey?s supporters were also taken into custody on similar charges, Anwar said.

nHazaribagh: In many booths, voting started late because of technical snag in EVMs. In Amritnagar at booth number-188, polling started two hours late because of technical snags in the voting machines.

nBarhi: Unidentified people smashed the windscreens of a Bolero belonging to Samajwadi Party candidate Uma Shankar Akela from Barhi. The incident took place this morning in Barwadih of Chouparan. Akela was unhurt. His supporters charged Congress workers in this stone- pelting incident.

nChandwa (Latehar): Those passengers who arrived on Thursday by different trains at Chandwa block in Latehar district did not know what was in store for them.

It was a nightmarish experience for those who were mostly stranded at Chandwa block due to non-availibilty of transport as most of the buses were seized for election duty.