VADODARA: A high-octane campaign coupled with dedicated drives to boost voting failed to lift spirits of voters in the 10 assembly seats of Vadodara district on Thursday.
The district registered an average of 72.41% voting almost the same as it registered in the 2012 assembly polls. Five years back, the district had registered voter turnout of 72.71 %.
Interestingly, voters spread in the five rural assembly seats seemed to be more enthusiastic towards elections compared to their counterparts in the five urban assembly seats. While the average voting in rural seats stood at 77.62 % that in the urban seats stood at around 67.21 %.
Voting had started at snail pace across the city in the first two hours. Amidst reports of EVM machines and voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) devices which were being used for the first time in the elections developing technical snags, the district had registered an average of 12.81 % voting by 10 am.
By 11 am, the election officials had to replace 4 EVMs and 58 VVPATs in polling booths across in the assembly seats including Savli, Dabhoi, Vadodara city, Sayajigunj, Akota, Raopura, Manjalpur, Padra and Karjan. At some polling booths, voters also got anxious as the technical snags in EVMs and VVPATs forced them to stand in long queue.
The voting turnout, however, jumped by 20 % average across the district between 10 am and 12 pm as voters including housewives, youngsters and senior citizens came out in large numbers.
Long queues were seen at the Faculty of Performing Arts building of M
S University near Sursagar, Shreyas School in Manjalpur area, Nagarwada, Gotri and Tandalja areas of the city.
"It was for the first time that I got the opportunity to exercise my voting right and I did not want to miss it," said Prakash Sagar, a MSU student, who was amongst the 57,812 young voters between the age of 18 to 19 years who got their voting right for the first time in their life.
A majority of youngsters and middle-aged couples could be seen clicking their selfies and sharing it with their friends and relatives on social media outside the polling booths.
"We had received complaints against three establishments including a call centre and ESI Hospital, Gotri where staffers were not being allowed to go for voting. Our nodal officer intervened and ensured that all the staffers can exercise their democratic right," said Vadodara district election officer and collector P Bharathi, who also visited one of the five 'sakhi' booths (entirely managed by women) in the city.
"Our booth which was fully decorated received tremendous response from voters. By 12, we had already witnessed a turnout of 31 % voters while it went up to 65 % by 4 pm," said an official handling the 'sakhi' booth set up at Shreyas Highschool at Polo Ground in Akota assembly seat.
Staffers at some polling booths however complained that proper drinking water facilities were not made for them.
Compared to 2012 assembly elections, the voting percent increased by two percent at Dabhoi assembly seat which registered the highest voting turnout in the district at 79.20 %. The Raopura assembly constituency, an urban seat, registered the lowest seat voting turnout at 66.27 % - even lesser compared to the 2012 assembly polls when it had registered 67.85 % voting.
Voting got off to a slow start.
