Peaceful voting at Baramati

BARAMATI, SEPT 12: Polling in Baramati, from where Sharad Pawar is contesting for the Lok Sabha yet again and where nephew Ajit is pitted...

BARAMATI, SEPT 12: Polling in Baramati, from where Sharad Pawar is contesting for the Lok Sabha yet again and where nephew Ajit is pitted against the Opposition-backed independent Chandrarao alias Anna Taware, ended on a peaceful note barring stray incidents.

Police said there was an attempt to cast a bogus vote and a squabble involving a voter and a NCP worker. Voters who seemed to have adopted an indifferent attitude in the morning, showed up in large numbers at various polling stations in the afternoon and exercised their franchise.

Ajit Pawar cast his vote at the polling centre set up in Katewadi, the Pawar home, around 7.15 am. Two hours later, Taware exercised his franchise at the polling station in the Zilla Parishad8217;s primary school in his village Sangvi.Initially, the response from the voters was lacklustre. Only six per cent of the voters exercised their franchise between 7 am and 9 am. The low voting trend continued as only 17 per cent of the voters had polled heir votes till 11 am. The turnout slowly increased to 38 per cent at 1 pm.

Most residents on the outskirts of Baramati town were busy working in their fields throughout the morning. Residents of the urban areas were seen shopping while polling centres remain deserted. Taware and Pawar with their supporters, visibly disturbed over the apathetic attitude of the voters, were seen trying to convince them to exercise their franchise.

The scene changed drastically in the afternoon as hundreds of voters started queuing up at the polling centres. With 46,517 men and 41,251 women having already exercised their franchise, 53 per cent turnout was recorded at 3 pm.As the day passed, the queues of voters became longer. Having finished their household chores, women came out in large number to cast their votes after 3 pm. Serpentine queues of voters were seen at many polling stations even after 5 pm.

The situation was totally different in Ajit Pawar8217;s Katewadi and Taware8217;s Sangvi village where residents started voting enthusiastically since morning.

Turnouts at the five polling booths in Katewadi was between 55 per cent and 77 per cent at 2 pm while that in Sangvi was 74 per cent at 3.30 pm.