WOMEN VOTE ENTHUSIASTICALLY
ALLAHABAD: Women could be seen voting enthusiastically in the Phulpur Lok Sabha by-election. Women seemed to match men at many of the polling booths. As many as 8.84 lakh women were eligible to vote in the bypoll as compared to 10.79 lakh men. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the women had registered 49.25% turnout against 50.90% recorded by men in Phulpur.
‘Using suffrage our duty’
ALLAHABAD: Sadhus came out in large numbers from their mutts and ashrams to exercise their franchise for Phulpur Lok Sabha by-poll. With ash and sandalwood paste on their foreheads, these holy men who otherwise keep themselves away from everyday society, were seen standing in queues in their polling booths, especially in the Daraganj area where many mutts, ashrams and akhadas are located. “Although we shun all comforts and spend our life inside temples, we cannot forget our national duty. First we are Indians,” said Sudarshan Charyaji, head of Shree Bhagwat Basic Sanskrit Vidyalaya and over century old Bhagwan Narsingh temple in Daraganj.
48 votes cast in this village
ALLAHABAD: Majority of the residents of Judapur village of Nawabganj refrained from voting in protest against the arrest of four youths – whom the villagers claimed to be innocent – in the murder of four members of a family, officials said. Sub-divisional magistrate, Bara, Arpit Gupta said out of 673 voters only 48 people, including 21 women, exercised their franchise. “Despite the attempts of district election officials, led by observer Chanchal Kumar, to convince people to vote, only a few villagers turned up to exercise their franchise,” he said.