Heatwave impacts polling in Hisar’s rural, urban areas

Deepender Deswal

Hisar, May 25

Extreme hot conditions took a toll on the polling process in the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency as the turnout of electors remained less than expected in both rural and urban areas. The low turnout has given jitters to all political parties and candidates in the constituency.

Mayyar village, which is known as the centre of agitations in Hisar, registered a low turnout of voters. At 1 pm, when a team of ‘The Tribune’ reached Booth Number 148 in a government senior secondary school, around 20 persons, including ten women, were standing in a queue. According to the polling staff, the booth, out of 1,234 voters in all — the highest in a single booth in the village — around 411 voters, including 197 men and 214 women, exercised their franchise on the voting day. There was no waiting period at the two other booths in the same school.

Joginder Singh, a former sarpanch, said hot conditions had dampened the voting fervour in the villages. “The polling majorly took place before 11 am and after 4 pm. There was hardly anyone for around three hours during the afternoon,” he said. Darshna Devi, a woman voter, said though many women had visited the booth early in the morning, she was busy with some work so she got late. “Now, at 12.30 pm, I found no other woman to accompany me to the booth, so I came here alone,” she said.

Anoop Singh, another resident, said there was hardly any voter visible at the polling booth in Litani village of the Uklana Assembly segment from 1.30 pm to 3.30 pm.

In Gangwa village, the polling percentage started picking up at 4 pm in the afternoon. Pawan Kumar, a polling agent of a political party at a booth in Gangwa village, said the polling slowed down after 11 am in the morning and had picked up at 4 pm. “The temperature reached about 45 degree Celsius in the afternoon. It seems that the people opt to take a break in the afternoon. There was a peaceful atmosphere and no discrimination inside the polling booth.” Vinod Kumar, another voter who was standing in the queue in the polling station in Gangwa village, said it seemed there was a direct contest between the two main political parties. “I have voted with the hope to form a fair and growth oriented government at the Centre,” he said.

In Hisar’s Jawahar Nagar polling booth, there was no waiting period for voters at 10 am. “I went after inquiring whether there was any queue or not. It took just five minutes for me to cast my vote,” said a government official.

The turnout report at 10.30 pm showed that the Hisar Lok Sabha seat had 32.6 per cent voting turnout. The Nalwa Assembly constituency reported 35.8 per cent voting, which was the highest in the Hisar Lok Sabha constituency.