Turnout began to improve only after 9 am as sunlight emerged, and long queues formed outside several booths.
Adilabad: Severe cold conditions led to a sluggish start to polling in the erstwhile Adilabad district on Thursday, with temperatures dipping to 5.4°C at Ginnedhari in Tiryani mandal of Komaram Bheem Asifabad district, the lowest recorded so far this winter. Single-digit temperatures were reported across 24 mandals.
Polling remained slow during the first two hours as elderly voters avoided stepping out in the freezing morning. Turnout began to improve only after 9 am as sunlight emerged, and long queues formed outside several booths. Although polling officially closed at 1 pm, officials allowed all voters already in queues to cast their ballots.
Sarpanch in Dabha (B) village of Ichoda mandal was elected through a coin toss after candidates Eshwar and Rameshwar secured 176 votes each. Eshwar won the toss and was declared Sarpanch.
Narrow victories marked several contests elsewhere. In Gaidpalli village of Mamada mandal in Nirmal district, Jadhav Naresh won the Sarpanch post by a margin of just three votes. In Kota Parandholi of Kerameri mandal, Rathod Pushpalatha secured the Sarpanch seat by a single vote over her rival Dileepkate.
Meanwhile, Utnoor police registered cases against Muchiveni Bhumanna of Danthanpalli and supporters of Pandurang, the newly elected Sarpanch of Navegaon in Ichoda, for taking out victory rallies without permission in violation of the Police Act. Police reiterated that such rallies require prior approval and must be held only on designated dates.
