Shimla, May 27 -- Barring minor skirmishes at the Haroli polling booth in Una and Sheetalpur in Solan districts, the first phase of panchayati raj elections concluded peacefully on Tuesday with a turnout of nearly 78%. Polling was held in 1,293 gram panchayats across the state from 7am to 3pm amid a yellow alert for heatwave conditions in Una, Bilaspur, Hamirpur, Kangra, Solan and Sirmaur districts. The turnout surpassed the 77% voting recorded during the 2021 panchayat elections held in 1,228 gram panchayats. The counting of votes for the posts of pradhan, up-pradhan and ward members is currently underway and results are expected to start trickling in shortly. The counting of votes for the block development council (BDC) and district council is scheduled for May 31. According to official data, Kullu recorded the highest turnout at nearly 84%, followed by Sirmaur with 82% and Solan with 81%. Shimla registered around 80% polling. Lahaul and Spiti registered the lowest turnout at around 69%. Kangra, which has the highest number of voters among all the districts, recorded a turnout of 75%, while Hamirpur registered nearly 73% turnout. Women voters outnumbered men, with female turnout recorded at 81.85% compared to 75.51% among men. In Shimla district, male voter turnout stood at 80.51%, higher than 79.37% recorded among women. Similarly, in Kinnaur, 73.95% men cast their vote compared to 73.22% of women, while in Sirmaur, the turnout among men was 82.60% against 82.54% among women voters. At the grassroots level, Kunair-Dhamaun gram panchayat in Sirmaur district recorded an impressive 97% turnout. In Kangra district, the election commission established a special auxiliary polling station for the remote Bara Bhangal gram panchayat, enabling all 101 registered voters to cast their votes. In the Chamba district, polling for the ward member post in Ward No. 3-Deela of Chambi gram panchayat was countermanded following the death of a contesting candidate. Similarly, in Shimla district, polling in Ward No. 1 (Brandli-1) of Narain gram panchayat under Rampur block was cancelled after officials mistakenly used a NOTA stamp along with the authorised Swastika symbol stamp. Fresh polling in the ward will now be held on May 30. Meanwhile, the ruling Congress and opposition BJP traded barbs over the polling trends. Principal media adviser to chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Naresh Chauhan, accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of panicking over the growing support received by Congress-backed candidates in the ongoing panchayat elections. "The BJP leaders had not expected Congress-supported candidates to receive such overwhelming public support in the panchayat elections. The people of the state are expressing confidence in the policies and decisions of the Sukhu government," Chauhan said at a press conference in Shimla. Former chief minister and leader of opposition, Jai Ram Thakur, thanked the voters for supporting the BJP-backed candidates. "The elections will deliver a clear mandate against the anti-people policies of the Congress government. A select few officials failed to uphold an impartial role during the polling. Complaints regarding negligence and irregularities in the electoral process have been received from several regions, thereby exposing the governmental impediments standing in the way of a clean and transparent democratic election process," he said. Polling was cancelled in Mandi district after the name of a candidate contesting for the block development committee (BDC) seat was found missing from the ballot papers. There are around 2,500 voters in the Thach-Thermi, Pralog and Mendi BDC ward of Karsog subdivision in Mandi district and the name of the candidate, Hoshiyar Singh, was replaced by NOTA. The error came to light shortly after polling began at 7 am. The matter was reported to the state election commission (SEC), which decided to postpone the BDC election. "An inquiry will be initiated to determine how this lapse occurred," the DC said. The SEC has rescheduled the polling for May 28. The second and third phases of polling are scheduled for May 28 and 30, respectively....