Millennium Post

Poor voter turnout in Gurugram and Faridabad Sporadic incidents of violence, bogus voting reported in Ggm

- PIYUSH OHRIE PIYUSH OHRIE

GURUGRAM: Gurugram and Faridabad may pride themselves on being the leaders in generating the highest revenue for the state of Haryana but the districts again proved to be laggards in being a part of state's own democratic exercise.

After registerin­g relatively

low turnout in the Lok Sabha polls, both Gurugram and Faridabad lowered their performanc­e even further in the fourteenth assembly elections of Haryana that were conducted on Monday.

Gurugram followed by Faridabad registered the lowest voting percentage among the 22 districts of the state.

While Gurugram district had a voting percentage of 50.14 percent, Faridabad was a tad better with 52.26 percent.

In comparison to these prosperous districts, the most backward district in the country Mewat again came in significan­t numbers to exercise their democratic franchise with a 65 percent voting percentage.

The situation of people not coming out to vote was more visible in urban areas. Gurugram urban area did not even cross the voting percentage of fifty and had a final voting tally of 49 percent.

The situation was not good in Faridabad city also where the voting percentage was only 42.4 percent.

In Gururgam district the highest voting percentage can from Sohna at 58 percent followed by Pataudi at 50, Badhahpur (45) and Gururgam (49). At 37.8 percent Badhkal in Faridabad district had the lowest voting percentage.

The largest constituen­cy in Haryana was however saved from the shame of being relegated to the lowest spot by areas of Hathin, Hodal, and Ballabhgar­h that had voting percentage­s of 72, 65 and 64.

Even though Mewat votes were much lesser than what it had pulled in 2014, it was enough for the poorest district of the state to impart a lesson to its richer counterpar­ts.

Despite incidents of violence healthy voting was reported from Nuh (66), Ferozpur Jhirka (64) and Punhana (66). Less turnout in South Haryana constituen­cies may have proved to be a dampener but what lifted the spirits was the enthusiasm of aged and specially abled citizens coming out and getting their fingers inked.

Ram Charan Aggarwal (72) who came at ward number 246 in Gurugram was suffering from cataract and his pupil had a greyish tinge but that did not deter him to come out and vote.

To compensate for the lack of facilities for the speciallya­bled voters the help of volunteers from the Red Cross and other NGO volunteers were sought. The young volunteers did not disappoint in lending a helping hand.

GURUGRAM: Even though voting was peaceful in the areas around Gurugram and Faridabad, there were certain incidents of violence that were reported. In one of the major incidents, there were reports of clashes between the workers of BJP and the Indian National Congress outside an election ward in Nuh Mewat on Monday morning.

Reportedly, what the situation deteriorat­ed and the workers from both sides began pelting stones, this led to a woman getting injured. The situation was finally brought under control by the Nuh police.

Dramatic scenes were also witnessed in a ward at Badshahpur where the election agents of the independen­t candidate alleged that the supporters of the BJP candidate were trying to pester people inside the ward to vote for their candidate.

Moreover, there were also allegation­s of bogus voting being reported from the ward and the situation. The matter was reported to Gurugram police and the law enforcemen­t officials drove the people who were believed to be the party workers for the mainstream party.

According to Navdeep Singh Virk who is the Additional DGP for the Law and Order (Haryana), minor incidents were reported from areas of Nuh, Rohtak, and Narnaul. In all, there were 12 FIR'S that were registered by the Haryana police. There were two incidents of firing that resulted in seven injuries but there were no deaths.

Right from the beginning, top officials from the District police including the Gururgam police Commission­er visited the sensitive wards to survey the security situation in the sensitive election booths.

“We have been successful in ensuring that there were no untoward incidents that were reported from any of the wards in and around Gurugram. We provided a safe and comfortabl­e environmen­t for the voters to come out and cast their votes,” said Muhammad Akil, the Gurugram police commission­er.

Voters in wards of Pataudi, Sohna, and Badshahpur were also riled by non-functionin­g of the EVM machines that were eventually rectified.

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