The first phase of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls on Saturday saw a low voter turnout in Noida and Ghaziabad.
As per figures by the district administration, Noida saw a voter turnout of 49.02%, Ghaziabad 57%, Bulandshahr 64%, Dadri 62.11% and Jewar 66.43%.
Jewar, Noida and Dadri are the three constituencies in Gautam Budh Nagar, which saw an overall turnout of 58.61%. In the 2012 Assembly polls, 57% of Gautam Budh Nagar voters had cast their ballot.
Missing names
Voting started in the 201 polling booths in Jewar at a slow pace on Saturday with 8% turnout by 9a.m. and 19% turnout by 11a.m. However, by 3p.m., the turnout had shot up to 51%, finally ending at 66%.
At Nangla Karauli village in Jewar, villagers encouraged each other to cast their vote. Namdeo, 62, a resident of the village, served tea to the voters. “Many labourers were heading towards brick kilns of Rabupura for their morning shift. But, I insisted that they first exercise their voting rights and then head for work,” Namdeo said. A total of 600 voters were registered in the village.
Besides the low voter turnout, there were also several complaints of missing names in voter list and campaigning by some candidates
Scores of voters across the city complained that their names were missing from the electoral roll, despite other members of their family being listed.
At the Sector 20 polling station, a booth level officer said: “Several voters from other sectors, such as Sectors 19 and 27, are included in my booth. Due to a software problem, such mistakes have taken place in several polling stations and voters are facing problems.”
‘Caught campaigning’
Meanwhile, some candidates were also found campaigning on voting day.
The Gautam Budh Nagar district administration and the Election Commission directed Noida’s Sector 20 police to lodge an FIR against the Noida candidates of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance for seeking votes on polling day.
SP-Congress alliance candidate from Noida, Sunil Chaudhary; and BSP candidate Ravikant Mishra, allegedly sent bulk messages to voters and also went live on Facebook to seek votes on Saturday. BJP candidate Thakur Dhirender Singh encouraged people to vote on Twitter, but has so far escaped the heat of the EC.
The BJP and other parties were the ones who filed a complaint against the two candidates. Winning the Noida seat is a top priority of the BJP, which is fielding Pankaj Singh, son of Home Minister Rajnath Singh, from the constituency.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chaudhary and Mr. Mishra have refuted the charges and said that the video on Facebook was an old one and “may have been posted by a party worker”.
