97-yr-old woman elected sarpanch in Rajasthan panchayat polls

A 97-year-old woman was elected as sarpanch in the panchayat election in Rajasthan's Sikar district, the result of which was declared on Friday after a day-long polling, an official said.

Vidhya Devi was declared the winner from Puranawas gram panchayat, falling under the Neem Ka Thana sub-division. She defeated her nearest rival Aarti Meena by 207 votes in the first phase of polling for the panchayat election in the state, Sadhuram Jat, sub-divisional officer of Neem Ka Thana, told PTI.

He said Devi secured 843 votes, whereas Meena could fetch only 636 votes. Out of the total 4,200 votes, 2,856 voters in the panchayat exercised their franchise.

Jat said a total of 11 candidates were in the fray from the gram panchayat and Devi's husband was a sarpanch from the panchayat for 25 years before 1990.

Polling for 26,800 wards of 2,726 gram panchayats of 87 panchayat samitis was held in the first phase of the panchayat election. There were a total of 93,20,684 voters, including 48,49,232 men and 44,71,405 women voters.

About 17,242 candidates for the sarpanch post and 42,000 candidates for the panch post were in the fray in the election.