FARIDABAD, February 17: Re-polling was ordered in five polling stations of the two assembly constituencies in the Faridabad parliamentary constituency today after incidents of booth capturing and ballot paper looting were reported during the polls conducted here yesterday.Fresh polling in the four booths in the city - booth number 48 in Kasturba Sewa Sadan, booth number 73 in Dayanand Public School and booth numbers 84 and 85 in Sewa Sadan, all in the NIT assembly constituency, and one in the rural area will be conducted on Wednesday.The Deputy Commissioner had recommended repolling in Sokhpuri village in Firozepur-Jhirka under the Nuh assembly constituency to the Election Commission after a section of Congress workers reportedly captured the booth here and indulged in bogus voting.In the city, unruly mobs reportedly captured the four booths, cast bogus votes and destroyed ballot papers a few minutes before polling closed in the evening yesterday.A case of disruption of the poll process has beenregistered against BJP MLA Chander Bhatia at the NIT Police Station.Supporters of two rival factions reportedly opened fire at village Abdar in the Nuh area, injuring at least eight persons. The Nuh police have booked nine residents of the village - Ijrael, Sharief, Habib, Khurshid, Sharif, Maqssod, Hasan Mohammad, Dinu and Sheru on charges of rioting with a deadly weapon, causing injury and criminal intimidation. The accused have not been arrested yet.Reports of forcible snatching of ballot papers were also received from Bawla village in the Taurou segment. At Khanpur Bawal in the Sohna segment, unidentified persons entered the polling booth and assaulted the poll officials. In another incident, some persons in Baroli village in Hasanpur allegedly prevented Harijans from casting their vote. "For half-an-hour, they were not allowed to enter the polling booth," a witness said. The persons were allowed to cast their vote only after intervention by the district administration.Sapanki, a small villagein the Hathin sub-division, boycotted the polls in protest against the local leaders' failure to provide them with even a pucca road. Their message to all the candidates was: "No road, no vote." By the end of the day, the administration here could only persuade 250 persons from a 1000-strong electorate to exercise their franchise.In the entire district, 55 per cent of the electorate cast their vote. While the urban population turned up in low numbers, a large section of the rural population turned up to exercise their franchise.
