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A quiet day at silver street

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI DEC. 1. It was an unusually quiet Monday for the bustling Chandni Chowk Parliamentary constituency today. With most voters venturing out only after 11 a.m., polling began on a slow note but picked up during the later part of the day. Interestingly, old-timers were out in full strength to cast their votes, often being helped into the polling booth, but determined to register their presence in the democratic process. Women also turned out in large numbers to cast their vote.

While polling was largely peaceful, some "sensitive" booths in the Matia Mahal Assembly constituency saw their share of minor skirmishes between supporters of the sitting MLA, Shoaib Iqbal, of the Janata Dal (S) and the 28-year-old Congress candidate Azhar Shagufa. Stormy scenes were witnessed outside polling booth number 60 with angry Congress voters shouting slogans against the police.

"The local police are behind Shoaib. We have received threats from his supporters and have registered a police complaint. There have been many instances of bogus voting in several booths, but no one is taking any notice. People are being allowed to cast their vote without any identification. Women in burkhas have come more than once to cast their votes. The presiding officers have been instructed by the MLA to let people cast their votes without any identification,'' alleged Congress leader Mohammad Afzal.

Countering his allegations, Janata Dal (S) supporters claimed that the Congress workers were making a noise about nothing. "The problem is that they can't stomach the fact that we are winning. We are checking identification. They just want to stop polling because we are clearly ahead,'' claimed a confident Janata worker. But apart from the odd disturbance, polling in Chandni Chowk parliamentary constituency went off without any untoward incident, though checking identity of the worker was often overlooked.

The chill in the air being too much for people to brave, most voters preferred to exercise their franchise in the later part of the day. A good voter turnout out, the Assembly Constituency of Matia Mahal recorded 56 per cent polling at 4 p.m. polling steadily increased after noon and the tiny Saraswati Kanya Vidyala booth number 26 saw a voter turn out of 44 per cent till 1 p.m. While larger areas like Daryaganj polling booth were slightly slower to get started, polling booth number 91 had only 34 per cent at around 2 p.m.

Interestingly, women were determined not be left behind. And women's groups will have much to cheer about, as gender parity was the norm for this "conservative'' constituency. With crowds of burkha clad women standing in line to vote most booths saw an average of about 30 per cent women exercising their franchise.

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• A quiet day at silver street
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