Jamshedpur: Nagar panchayat elections at Chakulia in East Singhbhum ended peacefully but polling for the Kapali Nagar Parishad in adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district had to be cancelled due to an anomaly in the way a candidate's poll symbol were recorded on EVMs.

At Kapali, polling to elect a chairman, vice-chairman and ward commissioners began at the scheduled time of 7am. But, polling for the post of vice-chairman had to be called off.

Polling for both posts, chairman and vice-chairman, was being held on party lines, but in EVMs the symbol of JMM candidate Mohammed Pervez Alam was incorrect. The JMM's election symbol of bow and arrow was incomplete, with EVMs only showing an arrow without the bow.

The JMM held a dharna before Chandil sub-divisional officer (SDO) and returning officer Bhagirath Prasad who clarified that voters did not seem to have a problem with the JMM symbol. But since the party candidate, Alam, protested, the SDO recommend that the election for the vice-chairman be cancelled.

"Elections for the post of vice-chairman will be held afresh, but it depends on the state election commission that has been informed about the cancellation," Prasad told The Telegraph.

At Kapali, civic polls are being held for the first time. The Kapali Nagar Parishad area is located closed to Mango in East Singhbhum and has 17,740 voters spread over 21 wards. In all, seven candidates had contested for the post of chairman and six for the post of vice-chairman.

The turnout of voters was 57.8 per cent.

Polling was also held for Chakulia Nagar Parishad in Ghatshila sub-division where a 75.14 per cent voters turned out to choose a chairman, vice-chairman and 12 ward members. There are 10,500 voters in Chakulia which is hub of rice mill.

Ghatshila Sub-division officer Arvind Kumar Lal said that polling for the nagar parishad was peaceful.

Polls peaceful

Dhanbad: Elections were held peacefully in Chirukunda and Phusro nagar panchayats in Dhanbad and Bokaro, respectively.

A voter turnout of 59.41 per cent and 59.36 per cent were reported in Chirukunda and Phusro amid tight security.

Bokaro additional Collector Jugnu Minz said, " elections were held peacefully in all the 63 Polling booths spread over 28 wards of Dhanbad today for which more than 441 polling personnels had been deployed besides 12 sectoral magistrates etc.

In Chirkunda Nagar Panchayat election during which 59.41% percent of voting was four persons were apprehended but later released after the conclusion of election.

Dhanbad Deputy Commissioner, Anjaneyulu Dodde said, "the election in all the 21 wards of Chirkunda Nagar Panchayat as wells bi election is two wards of Dhanbad Municipal Corporation were held peacefully in altogether 64 polling booths including 42 polling booths of Chirkunda Nagar Panchayat and 22 polling booths of two wards of Dhanbad Municipal Corporation for which more than 500 polling personnels were deployed and no untoward incident was reported from any of polling booths of Dhanbad.