Two persons were killed in clashes during the third round of panchayat polls involving 2.82 crore voters and 389,315 candidates in Uttar Pradesh on Friday.
While candidate Shyam Tripathi was gunned down in a clash with a rival candidate in Khalilabad area of Sant Kabirnagar district, another candidate Vishal Singh died of gunshot wounds during a crossfire between two rival groups outside a polling centre in Zamania area of Jaunpur district.
Nearly 70 per cent polling was reported at 6 pm, but officials expected the figure to rise as details of polling from remote corners of the state were still awaited.
According to Joint State Election Commissioner J P Singh, "Minor incidents of violence were reported from certain other parts of the state, but there were no casualties."
Apart from reports about firing in a few places, most of the incidents of violence involved damaging ballot boxes by pouring water in them.
"Pouring of water inside ballot boxes was reported from parts of Ghazipur , Ramabai Nagar (Kanpur Rural), Balrampur, Kannauj, Meerut, Pratapgarh, Deoria, Saharanpur, Allahabad, Narrielly, Azamgarh, Ambedjar Nagar and Muzaffarnagar districts," Singh said.
Minor clashes led to the suspension of polling for some time in certain pockets of Agra and Gonda districts.
It may be recalled that similar violence had also taken place during the first two rounds of polling on October 11 and October 14 respectively. While four killings were reported in the first phase of polling, three persons were killed during the second round of polling.
The fourth and final phase of polling is scheduled for October 25.