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Western UP turns out in big numbers to cast vote

The battle on face, at least in these parts, appears to be between BJP and BSP

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Voters standing in long queues to cast votes at a polling station during first phase of UP Assembly elections in Mathura on Saturday

Sanjeeb Mukherjee Alokananda Chakroborty Ghaziabad | Noida

Last Updated : Feb 11 2017 | 11:26 PM IST

Polling on Saturday turned out to be largely peaceful for many in high-rise apartments and gated societies that dots of landscape of the two townships that border capital Delhi as the first phase of polling in the crucial Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh ended with a high turnout of 64 per cent.

Elsewhere in 73 constituencies of Uttar Pradesh that went to the polls on Saturday, the turnout was impressive with voters queuing up since morning to cast their votes.

The battle on face, at least in these parts, appears to be between BJP and BSP. But in rural areas, Ajit Singh’s RLD and the ruling Samajwadi Party in urban parts were locked in a multi-cornered contest.

Most big cities of western Uttar Pradesh — be it Meerut or Aligarh — have a sizeable urban population alongside rural voters, who too are better-off than many of their counterparts in the other parts of the state. In some booths policemen had to politely tell parents not to bring their children inside as it was not allowed.

Burqa-clad voters show their ink-marked fingers after casting votes at a polling station during the first phase of Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, in Ghaziabad on Saturday

In Ghaziabad and Noida, urban voters along with their village counterparts participated enthusiastically to cast their votes.

“I have recently build a house in Morti Village and is a first-time voter from this constituency, but I have brought my entire family along with me as I have been regularly exercising my franchise,” said 60-year-old Ramkumar Pandey.

Morti, just like many other villages in Sahibabad and Ghaziabad assembly constituencies, is nestled alongside upcoming residential localities like Raj Nagar Extension and others.

It had around 1,600 eligible voters, of which majority exercised their franchise before noon. In other largely urban residential localities of Vaishali, Vasundhara and Indirapuram polling was brisk since morning and picked up pace as the day progressed.

“I never imagined that the morning crowd would be so heavy, otherwise I would have planned properly,” said the owner of a sweetmeat shop situated right at the opening of the lane which lead to Booth number 833 at the Government Primary School, Noor Nagar.

At Sector 52 Community Centre near Noida’s City Centre metro station, where a large chunk of the voters from the upscale neighbourhood of Noida had turned up to cast their ballot, the atmosphere was like a picnic. The February sun and the gentle breeze ensured voters had one less excuse to offer for not going out to vote.

Indeed, people had started trooping in right when polling started at 7.00 am, said one of the three police personnel deployed at the entrance.

Ajit Dhyani, 67 and an ex-government of India employee who had recently tripped and fallen while on his morning walk, limped in with a walker for support, and his wife and daughter-in-law for company.

The kids used the occasion to play some sort of catch-me-if-you-can game on the huge Noida community centre ground, while the older members of their families went through the voter lists that the three polling volunteers had spread out on a table in front of them. A gentleman in his early 50s appeared at his wit’s end because he had just discovered that while he could still cast his ballot, some people had already taken the photocopy of his voter slip, signed on the registration list, and cast the votes for his wife and daughter.

One of the volunteers sitting nearby gave him a number to call and register a complaint, and urged us to proceed to the room where we had to cast our vote.