Kalahandi, Feb 18: Alleging ghost polling in the polling booth gripped Siripur booth under Zilla Parishad Zone-4 of Bhawanipatna block here in tension thus leading to a scuffle between the outraged locals and the policemen and also the polling officials. As soon as the third phase of the Panchayat Polls got over and the counting began at 1pm the polling agents representing respective political parties present at the counting found that against the total number of 800 voters in Siripur booth, an excess of 300 votes were found inside the ballot box. Outraged by the incident, locals gheraoed the presiding officer and the polling officer. After intervening in the matter, when the police patrolling took an effort to take away the ballot box it lead to a scuffle. As a result, the irate locals beat up some policemen and the polling officer and damaged the patrolling van. To control the situation, Bhawanipatni Sadar SDPO, Biranchi Das rushed to the booth with additional police force.
