The Hindu : Rural folks keep EVMs ticking

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 02, 2003

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Rural folks keep EVMs ticking

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI DEC. 1. The elections to the 21 Assembly segments in the Outer Delhi parliamentary constituency today witnessed a varied voter turnout related somewhat to the economic profile of the people. So while most polling stations in posh colonies such as Janakpuri, Tilak Nagar and Rajouri Garden had voters trickling in all through the day, those in rural areas such as Najafgarh and Nangloi witnessed long queues at almost all the booths.

With no major violent incident through the day, the polling process passed off peacefully in Outer Delhi, from where a number of prominent political leaders of both the Congress and BJP were in fray.

The Delhi Transport Minister, Ajay Maken, was among the first to cast his vote in Rajouri Garden. Turning out to vote at the Junior Cambridge Foundation at 8-20 a.m., he declared that he would win comfortably - his prospects having improved as BJP decided not to field its own candidate but rather support Sarabjit Singh of the Akali Dal.

In Kirti Nagar, the constituency of BJP's chief ministerial candidate, Madan Lal Khurana, a large number of elderly people turned out to vote. One of them, octogenarian Sheela Mehta even came holding a walker and proclaimed that she never let go an opportunity to vote. However, by 10-30 a.m. only around 5 per cent voting had taken place in polling booth No. 60 here.

In Hari Nagar, where the former Delhi Minister, Harsharan Singh Balli of the BJP, was pitted opposite O.P. Wadhwa of the Congress, the turnout was slightly better but equally devoid of colour. Here around 15 per cent turnout was recorded at booth no. 80 in the MCD School by 11 a.m.

The scenario in Janakpuri - where the former Delhi Minister, Jagdish Mukhi, of the BJP is seeking election opposite Shiv Kumar Sondhi of the Congress - the buzz was clearly missing. At the Mira Model School here, at 11-30 a.m. only 8 per cent of the voters had cast their vote in booth No. 89 while in the other three booths the figure was around 10 per cent.

The election scene was much different around the unauthorised colonies of Hastsal and in the rural countryside. At the MCD School in Hastsal, where the sitting Congress MLA, Mukesh Sharma, is seeking election for the third time, the turnout was quite high and by noon nearly 20 per cent votes had been cast with long queues of voters outside certain booths.

The real colour was, however, visible in Najafgarh which is witnessing a multi-cornered fight between Bharat Singh, brother of Kishen Pehalwan of Dichaon village and candidate of Om Prakash Chautala's Indian National Lok Dal, Jai Om Dagar of the BJP and Kanwal Singh of the Congress.

The voter turnout was extremely heavy in Dichaon village where colourfully dressed women turned out with their faces covered to cast their votes and took the polling percentage to as high as 40 per cent by 12-30 p.m. Singing traditional songs, they stood patiently in separate queues for their turn to hit the button.

In fact, the polling stations here wore a festive look with many people just idling their time away watching the proceedings and engaging in small political talk. And though the police presence was large, there was no tension in the area.

So, was the case in Nangloi Jat, which had a sizeable number of hypersensitive booths. At the Union Labour Minister, Sahib Singh Verma's Mundka village the police maintained extra vigil.

Under the supervision of senior officials a convoy of three Tata 407 trucks with an equal number of cars and jeeps was seen doing the round of the constituency.

The secure atmosphere appeared quite reassuring to most and the polling station at Mundka School also recorded around 55 per cent turnout by 3 p.m.; the large queues pointing to a higher final count at the end of the day.

But with the contest really keen, no one was harbouring a guess on who the winner would be.

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