People fight at a panchayat poll voting booth in Haryana's Jhajjar
A fierce fight broke out between two groups at a polling booth in Haryana's Jhajjar during voting for the panchayat election. An electronic voting machine, or EVM, was damaged during the free-for-all, which was captured on camera. The video has been shared widely on social media.
The police said many people in the two opposing groups were injured. Jhajjar police chief Rahul Dev rushed to the polling booth with backup and took the situation under control.
In the video, police officers are seen trying to separate the two fighting groups. But they continue to throw punches and chairs at one another.
This was the first of the three-phase election, held in Haryana's nine districts - Bhiwani, Jind, Kaithal, Mahendragarh, Nuh, Panchkula, Panipat and Yamunanagar, apart from Jhajjar.
In Nuh too, some fighting and stone-throwing incidents were reported from two villages, news agency PTI reported.
Haryana State Election Commissioner Dhanpat Singh said there are over 49 lakh voters in the nine districts and 6,019 polling booths are open.