M A I N   N E W S

Nurmahal Bypoll
71 per cent cast vote
Amarjit Thind
Tribune News Service

Nurmahal, June 12
Contrary to expectations, the bypoll to the Nurmahal assembly segment passed off peacefully amidst tight security with 71.26 per cent voters exercising their franchise.

An elderly voter being helped by his relative at a Nurmahal polling booth on Friday. Tribune photo: Pawan Sharma

Owing to the pleasant weather conditions during the day, polling was brisk in the morning hours with 30 per cent of the voters casting their vote by noon. The numbers grew in the afternoon with the final tally reaching just over 71 per cent till closing time.

Barring a minor scuffle between the SAD and Congress supporters in some of the polling booths, no untoward incident was reported was reported from any segment of the constituency.

There was a high visibility of paramilitary forces, primarily the BSF and SSB, in the area and senior officers could be seen making rounds of the area.

A visit to various polling booths of the constituency revealed that the voters, particularly women first timers had cast their vote by 9 am and it was a healthy 30 per cent.

And the reason was not hard to guess. As Jaspreet Kaur and Gurmit Kaur of Jandiala Manuke village said, “I was pretty excited and asked by family to cast our votes in the morning itself. Moreover, we are relatively free in the morning after doing out chores and wanted to watch the polling process on television,” she added.

Interestingly, this process was witnessed in other villages like Mau Sahib with women outnumbering men in casting their vote before noon. In most of the polling booths only women voters could be seen till 2 pm following which the voting pattern changed with more men queuing to cast their votes. Here, the voting was over 50 per cent by 1 pm.

In many villages, supporters armed with voting lists could be seen going door-to-door urging people to cast their votes. In Bilga too, more than 50 per cent of the voters had cast their votes before noon.

In most of the villages, scores of workers of the contesting parties could be seen taking stock of the situation and the voters who had polled for their candidates.

That the voters were wary could be gauged from the fact that many voters like Jaswant Singh refused to comment on the effects of the Vienna incident as this area is home to the numerically superior Dalits. “We live like a family in this predominantly rural area and such incidents are mere aberrations and not the norm”, he added.

Another interesting aspect of the poll was to see scores of saffron clad devotees of the controversial Divya Jyoti Jagriti Sansthan casting their vote in Nurmahal town.

Returning Officer Praveen Kumar said the poll had passed off peacefully and the voting machines had been stored in a strong room in the Polytechnic College for Women on Ladowali Road. The counting would be held on June 15, he added.