Early birds stand in long queues

Chandigarh: Polling began on a high note as long queues of voters were witnessed outside polling booths in the city. Well aware of the fact that mercury would rise as the day progresses, a large number of voters reached the polling booths early in the morning. “I was in for a surprise when I reached the polling station at 6.45 am. I went early as I wanted to be the first to cast the vote. But little did I know that there would be many others like me. I had to wait in a serpentine queue for 90 minutes to exercise my franchise,” said Gajendra Singh, a Sector 26 resident. With the rise in temperature, the length of queues became short. aninder Singh, a resident of Mani Majra, said they went to the polling station in the afternoon and polled their vote in a few minutes. Polling, however, started picking up pace again around 4 pm. TNS

Creche facility at some stations

The local administration has also arranged crèche facility under the name ‘baby feeding room’ at certain polling stations. Voters, who were carrying small children, were seen dropping their wards at such rooms, which were being taken care of by officials of poll volunteers and other officials. Children were given toys to play, while their parents were seen going through the voting process.