E-Paper
Polling peaceful in Prayagraj amid voters complaining of missing names
Prayagraj witnesses a good turnout for local body elections with 49.93% voters casting their votes. 21 candidates are in the fray for the post of Prayagraj mayor.
Making the most of the pleasant weather, the voters registered a good presence at the polling booths to cast their votes at the urban local bodies elections in Prayagraj on Thursday.
Apart from stray incidents of missing names in voters’ list, peaceful polling was reported in the district.
By 6pm, the fate of all 21 candidates in the fray for the post of Prayagraj mayor including nine candidates of political parties and the rest independent, was sealed in the ballot boxes. Candidates of some major political parties vying for the post of mayor of Prayagraj include Ajay Srivastava of Samajwadi Party (SP), Umesh Chandra Ganesh Kesarwani of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Saeed Ahmed of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Mohd Qadeer of Aam Admi Party (AAP) and Prabha Shankar Mishra of the Congress Party.
Also, as many as 909 candidates are in the race for the post of corporators of 100 wards of Prayagraj municipal corporation which include 407 of the political parties and the rest 502 independent candidates. There are 64 candidates (27 of political parties and 37 independent) in the race for the post of president of the eight nagar panchayats and 516 for the post of members (155 of political parties and 361 independent) in these nagar panchayats.
Polling started at 7am and right from the beginning voters of rural areas started reporting in larger numbers to cast their votes for the eight nagar panchayats as compared to their counterparts of municipal limits. As per data provided by district election office, by 9am, 8.45% of the eligible voters had cast their votes in the eight nagar panchayats and the figure rose to 17.91% by 11am and 31.24% by 1pm. By 3pm, 39.23% voters had exercised their right to franchise. By 5pm 49.93%, voters had voted.
But in municipal limits, by 9am, just 3.72% of the voters had cast their votes which rose to 9.02% by 11 am and 16.03% by 1pm before reaching 23% at 3pm and 28.59% by 5pm.
As many as 17,16,705 eligible voters including 15,70,771 residing within municipal limits and another 1,45,934 in eight nagar panchayats were eligible to exercise their right to franchise to elect corporators for 100 wards of Prayagraj Municipal Corporation and the new mayor of Sangam city besides chairman and members of district’s eight nagar panchayats respectively.
A total of 1180 polling booths were set up within the municipal limits and another 127 in Nagar Panchayat areas. A total of 6,428 polling staff and 5,800 security personnel were deputed to ensure smooth voting.
Meanwhile, complaints of various irregularities in the voters’ list got reported during the civic elections. At some places the voters’ names were found missing while at other places names of dozens of people were allegedly cut off with a pen from the list and they were sent back. Dozens of voters’ names were found struck off with a red pen at booth number 864 of Pratishthanpuri Jhunsi Primary School. Polling Officer-1 Ashok Kumar said that the names of these voters are at two places and so their names have been struck off so that they do not vote here. However, he could not tell at which polling centre or which booth those people should go to vote and this caused resentment among the affected voters.
Dozens of people including Mahmuda Begum, wife of Late Abdul Hakeem and a resident Jhunsi Kohna, Jina Begum, wife of Mohammad Haseeb, went back without voting. Names of 12 family members of Saurabh and Manoj of Mumfordganj were also not there in the list at this very polling centre. Both of them filed a complaint after reaching the election office at Vikas Bhavan on Thursday.
Senior citizens were found turning up to vote with enthusiasm despite physical and health problems.
Jhunsi’s Nirmala Srivastava (89 years) reached the Central Academy booth to cast her vote. Srivastava, unable to walk due to a fall a few days ago, was taken by car to the polling centre and her family members took her to the booth using a wheelchair. She said, “Democracy has been established for public welfare. When people disappear, politics will become directionless.”
At this booth, 72-year-old Sudarshan Chaturvedi also came to vote with the help of a walking stick. A retired official of the postal department, Sudarshan shared that he came back home only five days back after being discharged from the hospital owing to ill health. “Every vote is vital and as a citizen I want mine to count,” he said.
Prayagraj police commissioner Ramit Sharma and district magistrate/district election officer Sanjay Kumar Khatri inspected polling centres all through the day to ensure proper arrangements at booths during the polls. In the morning, the officers visited the highly sensitive booths of Majidia Islamia Inter College and Daulat Hussain Inter College and took stock of the arrangements. The officials instructed to maintain smooth functioning of the polling arrangements. After this, the officers reached the polling stations set up at Kidwai Girls Memorial Junior High School and Mahila Gram Inter College in Subedarganj. They inspected each polling station there and also reviewed the security arrangements, status of polling till that time, polling percentage and also checked the diary of the presiding officer.
