By Mumtaz Alam, India Tomorrow,
New Delhi, 10 April 2014: Most of the queues at polling stations I visited in Muslim-populated areas of Delhi this morning had less than 10 voters – showing either low enthusiasm or old habit of getting up late.
I visited five polling stations in Muslim-populated Jamia Nagar area under East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency. Some polling booths at those polling stations had no voter. Polling booths at Shaheen Public School and Abul Kalam Azad school in Shaheen Bagh area of Jamia Nagar had few voters. Even several polling booths at Jamia Millia Islamia had voters that could be counted on fingers.
A polling booth at Jamia Millia Islamia (Photo India Tomorrow)
“There are 3450 voters at this polling booth, but not more than 5% votes have been cast by 10 pm,” said an official at a polling booth at Jamia Millia without disclosing his identity as he is not authorised to speak officially.
Poll officials relaxing in wait for voter at a polling booth at Jamia Millia (Photo – India Tomorrow)
“These people (Muslims in Delhi) get up late as they go to bed very late in the night. They will come after 11 am. At the end of the day, around 75% polling is expected,” said another official deployed at Batla House polling station.
Batla House stands out
Of all polling stations this scribe visited, one at Batla House locality was showing more life as queues of voters there were larger than other polling stations in the area.
a long line at a polling Booth in Batla House area (Photo – India Tomorrow)
East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency is witnessing a triangular fight between Congress, BJP and Aam Aadmi Party.
However, the Election Commission said about 10 percent of Delhi’s 12 million voters had exercised their franchise in the first two hours of balloting. The polling stations opened at 7 a.m.
Tight security outside a polling booth in Shaheen Bagh (Photo India Tomorrow)
There are 150 candidates in the fray. There are 7,057,648 male and 5,657,785 female voters in Delhi besides 839 ‘others’.
The city has 11,763 polling stations, of which 417 have been declared “sensitive” and 90 “hyper sensitive”. Security personnel are deployed at all polling stations.
