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3,898 candidates’ fate sealed
60 pc voters' turnout in Haridwar
Saints line up at a polling station to cast their votes in the civic polls in Haridwar on Sunday. Tribune photo: Rameshwar Gaur |
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Snag in EVMs, bogus voting, clash mark polling day
Women voters wait for their turn at a polling booth in Dehradun on Sunday. Photo: Anil Jaggi
65 pc cast votes in Mussoorie civic elections
Youth Speak
Doon district percentage 59.33, Rishikesh 66.7, Herbertpur 75.51
Congress hopeful of big victory: Dhirendra
Cong, BJP leaders keep date with democracy
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3,898 candidates’ fate sealed
Dehradun, April 28 Polling all over the state today was peaceful, barring some scuffle in Rudrapur where the BJP and Congress clashed on some petty issue. Apart from elaborate security arrangements, the Election Commission had appointed 2,400 observers to ensure that the polling was free and fair. There were 1,688 polling stations in the state out of which 580 polling stations were identified as sensitive. Voting for all six Municipal Corporations of the state was done through the electronic voting machines, while for the rest of the places, ballot papers were put to use. Among nagar panchayats, voting took place in the Badrinath, Gangotri and Kedarnath regions of the state. In coveted Dehradun Municipal Corporation, apart from Mayor, 288 contestants were vying for the post of councillor. For coveted mayoral post, Congress’ Suryakant Dhasmana, BJP’s Vinod Chamoli, BSP’s Rajni Rawat and UKD’s Manmohan Lakhera were the main contestants. While voting from the Dehradun Municipal Corporation elections in Dehradun passed peaceful, deletion of a large number of names from voters’ list certainly stood as a matter of concern. The most recognisable persons whose names were missing from the list included family of state Samajwadi Party president SN Sachan and state Information Commissioner Vinod Nautiyal. Sachan, who was aghast at finding the names of his family members missing from the list, asserted that he would take the matter with the Election Commission. Other eminent personalities, who found themselves in lurch included family of Hakeen Ajmal. At many booths, voters whose names were missing were even found augmenting with the contesting candidates, even holding them responsible for failing to ensure their names on the list. Many voters, who had voter identity cards and even voted for the Tehri Parliamentary byelection did not have their named on the voters’ list this time. Sunita Kumari, one such voter in the Mangla Devi polling station on EC Road, complained of her name missing from the voters’
list despite being in possession of a valid voter identity card.
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60 pc voters' turnout in Haridwar
Haridwar, April 28 A total of seven contestants were in the fray for the Mayor post, while 176 candidates were vying for the 30 seats of councillor. From 8 am onwards, voters could be seen thronging the polling centres and booths. At various booths, people were seen lining up to cast their vote just half an hour before the polling concluded at 5 pm. District police chief Arun Mohan Joshi said the polling got off peacefully, though minor shuffles and confusion over the voter identity card verification and absence of persons’ names in voters list was reported. At Khadkhadi and Jwalapur, administrative officials had to intervene when a clash broke out between supporters of two political parties. Yoga guru Swami Ramdev and his close aide Acharya Balkrishan casted their votes at Kankhal-based Krishna Nagar polling booth. Ramdev said the Indian democratic set-up was such that every voter’s vote was important. He said everyone should vote. Mayor candidates Manoj Garg from the BJP, Swami Rishishwaranand from the Congress, Irfan Ali from the BSP, Kazi Chand from Samajwadi Party, Dr Vijay Verma from the Aam Aadmi Party and Murali Manohar from the Rashtriya Krantikari Manch also administered their votes. Elaborate security and administrative arrangements were put in place for the election. City SP Kiran Lal Shah was made the in-charge, while for the rural segment, ASP Ajay Singh took over the charge. Besides, six circle officers, nine Inspectors, 173 sub-inspectors, 700 head constables, 1,125 PRD jawans, 300 village chowkidaars and three companies of Provincial Armed Constabulary were pitched in for the election.
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Snag in EVMs, bogus voting, clash mark polling day
Dehradun April 28 The candidates for the Mayor's post visited various booths in the city to oversee the arrangements and met voters. However, the counsellors stayed in the booths of their wards. The supporters of the candidates laid the table at some distance from the polling booths, where they were giving election receipts to voters. The supporters were trying their best to lure the voters. The dominance of candidates on their respective wards could be felt as their supporters were the first one to interact with the voters before letting them go inside the polling booths. The cases of bogus voting came from many booths such as Gandhi School. Later District Magistrate BVRC Purushottam and SSP Kewal Khurana too reached there. They also visited some of the 167 sensitive and 167 hyper-sensitive polling booths. Before the polling could get over, bogus voting had begun at these polling booths. However, quick
action was taken to contain it. It was in the day polling remained stopped for around half an hour at 12 polling booths, when EVMs developed a snag. It got panicky at Vasant Vihar and the rumours went around that the EVMs had stopped working. Many voters turned away from the spot after waiting for around 30 minutes. However, the machine could be repaired after 45 minutes. It was found that many voters failed to follow the new procedure introduced this time to cast vote. In 13 booths, there was single EVM machine for both mayor as well as councillor. Some voters could not differentiate which side was to vote, mayor or councillor. Some forgot to press the blue button, installed for rejection and red for closing the process. The Returning Officer had been provided the technology for pressing the red button on behalf of voters on the view machine. The rules were openly flouted. The posters of candidates could be seen pasted within the 100 metre area around the polling booths. They were seen also bringing voters in their vehicles and dropping them at the polling booths which had been prohibited. The election process ended peacefully. It was at 5.30 pm when clashes took place between the BJP and Congress camp in the Raipur ward, near the office of the Culture Directorate. The tempers had been running high throughout the day regarding the election. It was allegedly on the matter of preventing a supporter of a candidate that the scuffle began between BJP candidate Raju Rawat and Congress activist Shoib. The matter reached such a level where three to four of them also got injured in the process. By evening, however, no FIR was registered in the matter. Police officials, including the SSP and the SP city, soon reached there and took things under control.
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65 pc cast votes in Mussoorie civic elections
Mussoorie, April 28 The polling began on a moderate note in the morning but picked up momentum as the day progressed. The use of postal ballots instead of Electronic Voting Machines also led to the delay in polling. Many voters could not cast their voters as they had to stand in long queues due to the slow pace of the polls here. Around noon 28 per cent votes were polled in 24 booths of Mussoorie. The pace picked up after noon and by the close of the day, around 65 per cent votes were polled. Some booths in Mussoorie witnessed brisk polling while some saw low turnout due to different reasons in Mussoorie. Due to the long queues witnessed in most of the booths many voters had to return without casting their votes. However, some voters who had identity cards could not cast their votes as their names were missing from the list. The dejected Sunder Singh, voter from the booth in Kacheri ward, said that he had been voting since the past 15 years but today was told that his name was not in the list. Some voters were seen searching their names in the list at various booths of the town but found them missing. Some voters were able to cast their votes only after getting the identity proof provided by hotel owners in a letter pad while some could not vote by showing even their pass book to the returning officer in Mussoorie. Tight security arrangements were made for the election, which largely remained incident-free, barring a few incidents at the Sanatan Dharm Inter College booth, in Ward number 3, where a scuffle between the BJP and Congress was witnessed, with BJP candidate Amit Bhatt alleging that the Congress candidate was influencing the polls through fraudulent voting practice. The Congress candidate, Ramesh Bhandari, angry at the allegation, retaliated by hitting the BJP candidate with a wooden stick. The chaotic condition led to near stoppage of voting for a few minutes in the ward but the situation was defused only after the arrival of the Super Zonal Magistrate Hansa Dutt Pandey at the site of the incident. Following that the policemen were deployed at ward no 3 in large numbers to avoid any untoward incident, after which the polling continued peacefully. At Jharipani, several candidates alleged that the election officials absconded from the booth and returned after a few hours. Till then several votes of the people standing were cast fraudulently. Few cases of fraudulent voting were also reported from ward number 2 and 4 in the town. The fate of the candidates in the fray from Mussoorie will remain sealed in the ballot box, increasing their heartbeats till the final results are out on April 30. All the candidates when contacted assured their victory in Mussoorie by showing the victory sign after the polls.
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First-time young voters ecstatic
Sandeep Rawat Tribune News Service
Haridwar, April 28 Shuchi Singhal: ''I had apprehensions before casting the vote but now I feel why elders emphasise voting. There is a certain sense of responsibility while casting the vote and I relish it, as now I know by choosing and voting for the right candidate and party we can change the way the country is lead and governed. Unless we come out to vote, the spectra will not change much. Without voting how can we expect a change in society and system?''
Insha Ismail: ''This is my first experience of voting and really I was waiting for this moment. Though these are mayoral and ward councillors' elections, yet it is imperative that we opt for the right and honest candidates.Politicians lure voters in the name of money,caste, creed but we should not get swayed by it but opt for development-oriented candidates only. Prachi: ''As it was my first vote in any election, I didn't really analyse fully the candidates' profile, their agenda and also their party's manifestos. Now I realise that while casting votes these things need to be taken into account.'' Shaivya Rastogi:'' Civic elections are the first step towards realising our democratic set-up. I opted for those candidates who had good vision and manifestos. I did not bother about candidates' political past or affinity to political parties or election symbols. Sewer lines, dilapidated roads, non-functional street lights, these are small issues but affect our daily life. So I considered these problems before finalising on a candidate.
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Doon district percentage 59.33, Rishikesh 66.7, Herbertpur 75.51
Dehradun April 28 At 4 clock the voting percentage of Dehradun city was recorded at 54 per cent, which jumped after that. In this election, 10 candidates for mayoral position and 288 candidates for councillors' position were in the fray from the city. Vinod Chamoli, incumbent Mayor, is fighting for the Mayor’s position from BJP, Suryakant Dhasmana, vice-president, Congress, is Congress candidate, Rajni Rawat from BSP, Manmohan Singh Lakhera from UKD, Rajiv Kothari from Uttarakhand Parivartan Party and five other Independents are trying their luck in this election. Six candidates are vying for the position of chairman and 111 from ward councillors for Rishikesh nagar palika, six for
the position of chairman and 28 for councillors for Vikasnagar Nagar palika, nine for the position
of chairman and 65 for the councillors in Mussoorie, four for the position of chairman
and 40 for the members of nagar panchayat, Herbertpur, and seven for the position of chairman and 27 for the position of members in nagar panchayat, Doiwala. Around 4.5 lakh voters exercised their votes today.
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Congress hopeful of big victory: Dhirendra
Dehradun, April 28 He said people of the state had given their stamp of approval for development policies of Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna. He said the excellent leadership provided by state Congress president Yashpal Arya had also been a factor behind people giving acceptance to Congress policies and programmes. Meanwhile, the Congress expelled former Congress state secretary Avinash Sharma from Bajpur and Congress leaders Vijay Pal Singh and Akram from Mahuvakheda Ganj for six years for anti-party activities during poll. Party spokesman Dhirendra Pratap said strict disciplinary action would be taken against all those who worked against party candidates in civic poll.
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Cong, BJP leaders keep date with democracy
Dehradun, April 28 On other hand, Congress Mayoral candidate in Dehradun, Suryakant Dhasmana, cast his vote at Mangla Devi Inter College, EC Road, at 10.30 am. He said there was a lot of excitement among the people, particularly among the youth and women to vote for the Congress. He said there was anti-incumbency factor against the sitting Mayor and the BJP Mayoral candidate Vinod Chamoli in Dehradun city. Chamoli cast his vote at St Annes School, Nehru Colony. He, too, hoped for a massive BJP victory in the civic polls. UKD Mayoral candidate Manmohan Lakera cast his vote at St Agnes School, Neshvilla Road. BSP Mayoral candidate Rajni Rawat cast her vote at Guru Nanak Inter College, Chukkuwala. —
TNS
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The election for the Haridwar Mayor Corporation witnessed an average turnout of voters here today. The poll witnessed 60 per cent voting for the municipal corporation elections.
Barring a few stray incidents, voting for the post of mayor and the posts of councillor poll in 481 polling booths in the city remained peaceful today.
A large number of voters preferred to vote in the morning than the afternoon.
