E-Paper
Brisk voting in the suburbs
Many parts of Gurgaon and Faridabad polled more than 60 pc votes; the Sohna segment recorded 73 pc
Photo finish likely in Faridabad
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) seems to have a fighting chance in Tigaon assembly segment of this district. In the Palwal segment, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) also seems well placed against the ruling Congress. “BJP has given us a state unit president. It is our duty to ensure his victory from this prestigious seat,” said Jaivir Adhana of Tigaon, where Congress has fielded Lalit Nagar, a young Gujjar.
The BJP candidate Krishen Pal Gujjar was a cabinet minister in Bansi Lal’s government. Likewise, in Palwal, Congress’ sitting MLA Karan Dalal is in a neck-and-neck race with INLD’s Subhash Chaudhary.
Good turnout
Overall, the Prithala assembly segment of Faridabad district registered 67 per cent polling, followed by Faridabad NIT seat (65 per cent). Ballabgarh recorded the least polling — 55 per cent.
Largely peaceful
Polling was largely peaceful in the district, Faridabad Police Commissioner PK Agarwal told HT. However, clashes marred polling in one of the polling booths in Hathin assembly segment of Palwal.
Sources said two BSF jawans were injured when villagers threw stones at polling booth 91. The BSF jawans were controlling the crowd of voters.
Urban voters stay away in Gurgaon
The district’s villages polled far more votes than its ‘posh’ enclaves in Tuesday’s assembly election. While the overall voter turnout within Gurgaon assembly segment — there are three other segments in Gurgaon district — increased to 55 per cent from 47.87 per cent last time, in the urban areas it ranged from 30 to 45 per cent. Residents were clearly not keen on voting despite the holiday declared by the corporate sector to improve polling.
Confusion
Errors and omissions in the voter-lists also contributed to the low turnout in posh areas. Many residents with valid voter identity cards could not vote as their names were missing from the lists. Ratnesh Mohan Verma and his wife Rachita, from DLF Aralias, could not vote.
“When we reached Shri Ram School to cast our votes, we were told that our names were not on the list. However, we had cast our votes last time,” they said.
Vijay Jakhmola from Essel Towers and PL Gupta from Trinity Towers also could not vote as their names were missing from the lists.
Official view
Gurgaon’s district magistrate Anurag Agarwal said he was aware of the problem of missing voter names but the situation had improved since the parliamentary elections held in May this year.
Agarwal said, “This time, we had set up voter-assistance booths at eight different locations in the DLF and Palam Vihar areas. We had also set up 18 voter registration information centres. A computerised search facility was available for voters, and they could have looked up their names in the lists easily.”
Sohna tops
Among Gurgaon’s four assembly segments, Sohna topped with 73 per cent voting, Pataudi polled 63 per cent and Badshahpur 60 per cent.
Village boycotts poll
All 1148 voters of Kho village near IMT Manesar stayed away from the voting to protest against the administration’s ‘apathy’ on local issues.