Polling in the six constituencies that make up Mumbai North West started slowly with reported glitches in electronic voting machines (EVMs) at some locations. Booths in Dindoshi, Goregaon and Versova wore a deserted look in the early morning and by the time voting ended at 6 p.m., some constituencies featured on the list of worst performing across the State. “This has been the fastest I have taken to cast my vote in the last few elections. I literally did not stand in a queue and finished voting in less than three minutes or so,” said Kantibhai Shah, who came to cast his vote at Yashodham High School, Goregaon.
Versova polled lowest at 42.66% as opposed to 41.59% in 2014. Versova — also fourth on the list of constituencies with worst voter turnout across State — boasts of high rises and posh apartments. The final polling percentage for Dindoshi was reported at 54.12%, 46.67% for Goregaon, 52.89% for Jogeshwari East, 53.65% for Andheri East, and 43.22% for Andheri West.
According to the voter turnout application of the Election Commission of India, areas with large slum clusters such as Jogeshwari (East), Andheri (East), and Dindoshi saw a high turnout while Juhu, Versova, Lokhandwala, etc. had poor turnout.
BJP corporator from Goregaon Sandeep Patel, who had gone to I B Patel School in Jawahar Nagar for voting, said, “In 2014, it had taken me about half an hour to cast my vote but today, I came out in five minutes. There were no queues. I think there was relatively less enthusiasm among people. I saw fewer youngsters as well.”
Residents said Andheri (East), which witnessed a voter turnout of around 56.31%, could have seen greater participation had former residents not been shifted to Mahul. Meanwhile, 1,600 residents from Mahul could not cast their votes as their names were deleted from the list after they had started protesting last year against the rehabilitation.
During the Lok Sabha polls, the voter turnout for North West stood at 54.71%, an increase of almost 4% from 2014 when a little over 50% had come to vote.
