Voting in 17 constituencies in the third phase of the state elections went off without incident on Thursday, though the overall polling percentage dropped marginally.

“Today's polling was peaceful and no untoward incident was reported from any of the constituencies where polling was held,” chief electoral officer Vinay Kumar Choubey informed the media at his Dhurwa office in Ranchi in the evening.

“The overall polling percentage in these constituencies was 62.35 per cent which is 1.67 percentage points less than the polling figures of 2014 Assembly election that stood at 64.02 per cent,' he added.

Silli, where Ajsu Party chief Sudesh Mahto is contesting from, recorded the maximum polling of the phase at 76.98 per cent, followed by Ichagarh at 73.11 per cent.

Ranchi recorded the minimum polling, 49.1 per cent, Choubey said. Due to technical snags, 95 ballot units, 89 control units and 140 VVPAT machines were needed to be replaced, he said. “We kept a sufficient number of those in reserve but the requirement was not much,” he added. “We took every possible measure to prevent any untoward incident,” said additional director-general of police M.L. Meena.