Voters at the polling booth in Jawahar English Medium Primary School in Ganesh Peth complained of congestion and suffocation as they had to queue up in extremely narrow corridors to cast their votes. Pavan Khengre CONTRARY TO expectations that high voter turnout will be witnessed in the Assembly by-poll, polling in Chinchwad remained slow on Sunday, with only 50.47 per cent voter turnout recorded till 6 pm. The counting of votes will take place on March 2.
“Usually, in bypolls, the festive atmosphere is missing, as is the case during general elections. Therefore there is less enthusiasm among voters,” said an election official. Political parties, especially the BJP, were hoping for more than 55 per cent voter turnout.
While polling began on a muted note in the morning session, it picked up pace later, said election officer Sachin Dhole. “After the first two hours, polling jumped and this trend of… increase every two hours continued,” he said. In the initial two hours, only 3 per cent of voting was registered while in the next two hours, 9 per cent of voting was registered and by 1 pm, the number jumped to around 20 per cent. The momentum continued throughout the day, jumping by 10 per cent every two hours. “We were getting reports about long queues across the constituency. And therefore we were hoping for a bigger turnout in the next few hours. But in the end, it did not happen…,” said Kiran Gaikwad, another election officer.
S Satyanarayan, an observer from the Election Commission, told The Indian Express, “I have not seen any problems in the polling process. The polls are being conducted smoothly.”
At a polling booth in Kasba on Sunday. Pavan Khengre In areas which are strongholds of the three major candidates — BJP’s Ashwini Jagtap, NCP’s Nana Kate and Independent candidate Rahul Kalate — the voter turnout was brisk after 10 am. In Pimple Gurav and Sangvi where the Jagtap family dominates, a festive election atmosphere seemed to prevail for the most part of the day. In Pimple Saudagar and Rahatani, the stronghold of Nana Kate, there was enthusiasm among voters. Similarly, in Wakad, Thergaon, Poonawale and Ravet, where Kalate claims he has a good rapport with the voters,
good turnout was reported, said officials. BJP candidate Ashwini Jagtap, whose husband and BJP MLA from Chinchwad Laxman Jagtap died earlier this year, said, “…I was hoping for a bigger turnout because of the poll atmosphere that had prevailed.. . Nevertheless, I am confident of a victory.” NCP candidate Nana Kate said the low turnout will benefit him more than his close rival Ashwini Jagtap. “The fight is between Ashwini Jagtap and me. I will scrape through but by a small margin as the voting has been on the lower side,” he said.
Independent candidate Rahul Kalate, however, said he was not disappointed by the lower turnout. “The turnout was not on the higher side… but in areas where I have a good network like Wakad, Thergaon, Poonawale, Ravet and Kiwale, the voting was brisk. And therefore, I feel I have a better chance…,” he claimed.