Urban Delhi beats rural in poll rush

Resettlement and unauthorised colonies in Jahangirpuri,Sultanpuri,Mongolpuri,Bawana,Narela and Samaipur Badli,however,saw some queues but the number of voters came down towards the afternoon. At the Kirari and Sultanpur Majra Assembly seats,voter turnout was at 20 per cent till 1 pm. The total percentage of voters who showed up till 2.30 pm was around 25 per cent for the whole constituency.

Only Rohini,where polling started at a pace,saw 34 per cent of more than 1 lakh voters voting up till noon. Rohini recorded the maximum turnout out of the 10 Assembly seats in this constituency.Mundka,Sahib Singh Verma’s erstwhile seat,saw a turnout of around 50 per cent by the evening.

While Independents and local parties are expected to affect both the Congress’s and BJP’s chances,local leaders said Congress’s Krishna Tirath,who had an advantage over BJP’s Meera Kanwaria,will be affected by the low turnout.

Name: Jagdish Pathak
Age: 48
Occupation: Unemployed
Area: G-block,Jahangirpuri
At 7.05 am,Pathak was the first voter at the MCD Primary School in Jahangirpuri.

“Nobody has carried out any development work here in Jahangirpuri,or anywhere in the Northwest constituency. Each time,I hope a new candidate will do something for us,” Pathak says.

Pricerise is the biggest issue for the common man here. “For people like us,terrorism and international affairs do not matter. What matters is the rate of commodities,” he says.

He finds the policies of the Congress better than those of the BJP; he,however,says he does not see any leader taking the nation in “the right direction”. “Only Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi had that potential,” Pathak says.
-Neeraj Chauhan

Chandni Chowk
At one of the several polling booths in Matia Mahal in Chandni Chowk,policemen yawned outside and polling agents frequently took tea breaks,looking at the few people walking past them in the usually crowded lanes of Chandni Chowk.

And even though Chandni Chowk looked a fraction of its usual self,the constituency registered a decent voter turnout at 50 per cent. But Matia Mahal,a predominantly Muslim area,lagged behind.

Only 50 per cent voters turned up at the polling booths. Only 30 per cent Muslims voted in the constituency,according to party sources.

More than the scorching sun and the scattered polling booths,it was the feeling of betrayal that kept them on the sidewalks on the polling day.

At one polling booth,only 282 voters showed up out of a list of 755,a party worker said.

“Very few Muslim women came out,” he said.

“They are bored of this whole electoral process. Too many elections and too little done for them,” Bado Bhai,a local said.

Chandni Chowk has around 1.4 million voters and the Muslim percentage is down considerably.

And while the candidates did many gigs including Sibal riding a solar rickshaw during the campaign,the voters were not impressed.

“He thinks he can come to Chandni Chowk,climb on a rickshaw and fool us into believing that he is ours,” said a man who did not vote.

Name: Abdul Malik
Age: 38
Occupation: Polling agent for BSP
Area: Jama Masjid
Outside the Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya near Jama Masjid Gate number 1,Abdul Malik chatted with a few policemen over hot cups of tea. At 8 am,Chandni Chowk was still waking up. Malik,a polling agent for the Bahujan Samaj Party,was the first to cast his vote at polling booth number 348. “I did Bismillah. I have been the first one to do it in many elections. We are usually the first ones here,” he said. “It will get busy after 2 pm. That’s how it has always been.” While he seemed resigned to the fact that Behenji’s ‘Haathi’ doesn’t stand a chance in the Congress stronghold,he wants BSP candidate Haji Mustaqeem to get enough votes to play a “good spoiler.”
-Chinki Sinha

Northeast Delhi
Young girls in their Sunday best,women pacifying howling infants and the elderly being helped by their grandchildren to the pooling booths — Election Day in Northeast Delhi stood out because of the active participation of locals and the holiday mood typical of the great Indian election.

By lunchtime,the voting percentage was hovering around 32.

With one of the largest slums that form a strong vote bank,Northeast Delhi witnessed the highest voter participation.

In Gopalpuri,a slum area near Mukherjee Nagar,almost everyone was excited about taking part in the polls. “We know that no government is going to change anything for us but we still want to exercise our rights,” said Vinod Kumar,a resident.

The election had its own share of chaos. In Ghonda,Kamla Devi,67,was found hurling abuses at election officers for not being allowed to vote despite her name being in the voters’ list. Kamla’s voter ID was faulty and she had not yet received a new one.

The voting trend by afternoon suggested a tilt towards the Congress. While the Congress office in Yamuna Vihar was calm and its members oozed confidence,B L Sharma ‘Prem’ at the BJP’s Shiv Vihar office fumed at the Congress and accused the party of tampering with the EVMs and allowing bogus voting.

The total voting by evening stood at 52 per cent,the third largest in the city’s seven Lok Sabha constituencies.
– Hamari Jamatia and Sukalp Sharma

Name: Jannati
Age: 19
Area: Karawal Nagar
Jannati was only 12 when she got married and moved to Delhi from Bihar last year. Her husband works in a toy factory.

She does not know which leaders are contesting but came to vote early nonetheless so that she can go back to her sewing.

When asked as to why she married at such a young age,she is silent but her friend says,“Jannati was married seven years ago and things have changed. Now we concentrate on our daughter’s studies.”

Jannati says she will vote for the Congress because her family had asked her to do so.
-Hamari jamatia

New Delhi
The post-lunch rush may have pushed the polling total to over 50 per cent,even in areas like Patel Nagar,Karol Bagh and Rajinder Nagar,but the poor voter turnout in the slum clusters of Moti Nagar,Karol Bagh and even Zamrudpur,as low as 36 per cent in some areas,came as a slight jolt to the Congress.

Party workers said most of these JJ clusters and unauthorised colonies are inhabited by Poorvanchalis,who leave for their villages in UP and Bihar during the summer. “Even though our party was the only one to have fielded a Poorvanchali candidate in West Delhi,the turnout dipped to between 36 and 40 per cent,when we were expecting 60 per cent,” a worker said.

Greater Kailash recorded a voter turnout of about 50 per cent by about 5 pm,after an initial hiccup. Zamrudpur,an urbanised village,could muster a turnout of only 30 per cent.

Voting picked up after lunch and areas like Kailash Colony,Rajinder Nagar,Patel Nagar and Karol Bagh recorded a high voter turnout of about 45 to 50 per cent.

While areas like Sarojini Nagar and Netaji Nagar saw a low voter turnout of about 39 to 40 per cent in the first half of the day,Gole Market and Lodhi Colony had recorded a turnout of about 44 per cent by 4 pm.

While the Congress’s Ajay Maken is expected to have an upper hand despite the moderate voter turnout,the Delhi cantonment area,known to be a Vijay Goel stronghold,recorded a turnout of about 55 per cent at least.

Name: Paltu Yadav
Age: 51 years
Occupation: Manages visitor passes at Meghalaya House
Area: Meghalaya House,Aurangzeb Road
A regular voter since the 1970s,Yadav has been working at Meghalaya House for the last three years as a guard and manages visitor passes for entry into the building.

The polling booth in his area,at Nirman Bhawan,was pulsating with excitement because of the expected arrival of political stalwarts like Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit,and Yadav says,“It feels good that they too are voting… after all Laluji has given them enough trouble.”
– Aanchal Bansal

West Delhi
Polling kicked off at a brisk pace in the West Delhi constituency as voters made a beeline for the 1,689 polling booths. Till 11 am,around 17 per cent voters had exercised their franchise.

Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and BJP leader and former CM Madan Lal Khurana were among the early birds and cast their votes in Punjabi Bagh and Kirti Nagar respectively. The 100 villages in the constituency,however,witnessed a surprisingly low turnout with Najafgarh and villages like Mitrow and Surhela,considered Congress strongholds,recording 30 per cent polling.

“The turnout came as a surprise as villagers usually cast their votes in great numbers early in the morning,” said a polling officer. The next four hours witnessed a further drop in voters’ enthusiasm as the mercury touched 38.5 degrees Celsius at noon.

Urban pockets,with the exception of the Tilak Nagar area where most of the 1984 Sikh riot victims live,seem to have fared better. Areas like Janakpuri,Hari Nagar,Rajouri Garden recorded close to 60 per cent polling by 3 pm.

“Even the heat could not deter voters. Of the total 4,100 voters in this polling booth,2,900 voters cast votes before 3 pm,” said sub-inspector Naresh Singh in Janakpuri.

Polling picked up in the evening,taking the total polling percentage in the constituency to 53 per cent,the highest among seven constituencies. The high voter turnout after 4 pm forced polling officers to extend the deadline by more than an hour in some places.

Name: Sajjan Kumar
Age: 50
Occupation: Congress leader
Area: Paschimpuri,Punjabi Bagh
Accompanied by son Jag Parvesh and brother Ramesh Kumar,Sajjan Kumar reached the poll booth in Paschimpuri at 7 sharp. “We went to a temple this morning to seek blessings. Our next stop will be the South Delhi constituency. I want to meet the party workers and our supporters and get a sense of what the situation is like there,” Sajjan Kumar says.

Having maintained a studied silence ever since he pulled out of the Lok Sabha race along with Northeast Delhi candidate Jagdish Tytler,Kumar now says he can not be written off easily. “Although I could not contest this time,I am confident my supporters will give the same love to my brother and assure our victory,” he says.
– Ayesha Arvind

South Delhi
At 8 am,the polling booth at Bijwasan,in the outskirts of South Delhi,was nearly empty. An hour later,polling officers were seen standing outside a vacant booth in Chhatarpur,where only three people had turned up to vote.

South Delhi,on the whole,registered a voter turnout of 48 per cent.

Palam and Bijwasan,where party politics seem to have influenced the voter turnout,saw a turnout of 47 and 50 per cent,respectively. Both Assembly constituencies have BJP MLAs but the infighting here affected the voting percentage. And the low turnout could hurt the BJP’s chances.

“The fight for both these seats is very close and whosoever manages a victory,will have won with a narrow margin,” a senior Congress leader says.

Ambedkar Nagar,Congress leader Prem Singh’s constituency for the last five terms,also reported a low voter turnout,presenting a mixed bag for both parties. Even BSP candidate Kanwar Singh Tanwar could not galvanise voters and only 45 per cent turned out.

The Gurjjar vote here was divided between Tanwar and BJP candidate Ramesh Bidhuri.

Tughlaqabad,from where Bidhuri has been elected twice for the Delhi Assembly,reported a turnout of little over 50 per cent.

Mehrauli recorded the lowest voter turn out in South Delhi at 42 per cent.

In Badarpur,BSP MLA Ram Singh Netaji distributed water free of cost from his tankers. However,this area too recorded a voter turnout of 42 per cent.

The Election Commission’s “Pappu” campaign,however,seemed to have made an impact on middle class voters,with the residential colonies of Vasant Kunj and Saket reporting a voter turnout of nearly 60 per cent.

Name: Ram Chander
Age: 22
Occupation: Barber
Area: Chhatarpur Enclave
A Class XII drop-out,Chander moved from Azamgarh two years ago to Delhi looking for employment. His elder brother was already running a small shop in Delhi.

“Our land has been sold and there are no jobs in Azamgarh. So after my brother settled here I also followed him,” Chander says. The brothers live in a one-room house in Chattarpur and pay a rent of Rs 500. Despite coming from a politically charged district,Chander does not have many reasons to vote,except that it is ‘important to vote.’ “I have to vote for security. Road,water,power and other facilities are also important,” Chander says.

This is the second time he has voted after his identity card was made before the Assembly elections last year.
– Sobhana K

East Delhi
At 52.5 per cent,East Delhi recorded the second highest voter turnout on Thursday,a few notches behind West Delhi’s 53 per cent. The Chief Electoral Officer had to extend voting in many of the constituency’s booths till 6.30 pm.

Sandeep Dikshit’s meteoric rise over the last five years as sitting MP and various development projects seem to have ensured a victory for the Congress here. The constituency,however,does have pockets with an entrenched BJP base. At Krishna Nagar,one of the two Assembly constituencies in the East with a BJP MLA,voters were not quite as impressed by Dikshit. “I think people are more connected to their MLAs than they are to their MPs. The MLA from this area,Harsh Vardhan,has done a great job and I am convinced that will continue. Hence,I cast my vote for the BJP,” Kartik Juneja,a garments manufacturer,says.

In Jamia Nagar,however,it was all about the Congress. “I have voted for the Congress all my life. Of course,I still believe what happened at Batla House was wrong and those children are innocent. But if we voted for the BJP,such incidents will only increase,” 55-year-old Gausiya Begum,a resident of Batla House,says.

Heightened security here ensured that no untoward incident took place.

In Old Seelampur,amid dusty roads and open sewers,voters sing paeans about Sheila Dikshit,almost as if she herself were a candidate from the constituency. “Because of Sheilaji,we have seen so much development in this area and it makes sense to vote for the party that will continue with that work,” 26-year-old Sonu Saksena says.

Incidentally,Dikshit had campaigned extensively for her son in this area.

Names: Sharifan Abdul Aziz and son Mustaqueem Ansari
Age: Aziz: 90; Ansari: 60
Occupation: Ansari is an embroiderer
Area: Shanti Mohalla
At Old Seelampur,Aziz and Ansari were among the first voters. Aziz says she has been voting for years. “I am not an educated woman but I know my rights. I am a bit of an expert now,” she joked. Ansari said,“This is a kind of a family tradition. For years,my mother and I have come to vote together. At times we even voted for separate candidates.” This time,however,both have voted for BJP candidate Chetan Chauhan. “We voted for the Congress last time but nothing changed for us,” Aziz said.
-Mandakini gahlot