NEW DELHI, November 25: Fewer Delhiites voted in today's elections to the state Assembly than they did five years ago. Election Commissioner Manohar Singh Gill announced this evening that the turnout by the 8.3 million-strong electorate in Delhi was 52 per cent. This compares poorly with the 61.6 per cent recorded five years ago, when elections were first held to the Delhi Assembly.The novelty of electing the local MLA might explain the relatively high turnout five years ago. But this time the elections were expected to draw voters to polling stations in droves because Delhiites have been affected by issues like spiralling prices, lawlessness and widely perceived poor governance during the last five years. This is why the 52 per cent voting recorded is somewhat inexplicable.Stray incidents of violence was reported from East Delhi. Around 500 people were affected by food poisoning in the Hauz Khas constituency, which reported a 52 per cent turnout.Significantly, Outer Delhi constituencies like Mehrauli, Saket, Mahipalpur, Tughlakabad, Saket, Bawana, Hastsal, Shahbad Daulatpur, Narela and Najafgarh bucked the day's average and reported enthusiastic balloting. In some of these areas, voting was as high as 70 per cent.Equally significantly, in relatively upmarket residential areas like Saket Colony and Pushp Vihar in south Delhi, only 25-30 per cent voting was recorded.The Assembly segments in New Delhi and Karol Bagh parliamentary constituencies experienced moderate turnouts. Among the New Delhi constituencies, Gole Market (where Congress's Sheila Dikshit and BJP's Kirti Azad are the main contenders) and Jangpura reco-rded around 50 per cent each.Said Sunil Joshi, a Congress party worker: ``Usually, voters in Gole Market come out to vote only close to closing time. But today they started fairly early. People seemed eager to vote.'' Jangpura, similarly, witnessed an evenly spread-out voting pattern throughout the day, before closing at around 50 per cent.Till 4 pm, polling officers in Karol Bagh's constituencies were relaxed, the electorate ambling in. But in the last hour thereafter, they were hardpressed as the stragglers walked in and the figure touched 50 per cent-plus by the time shutters were downed.In Nasirpur, which is has five `sensitive' booths, voting dramatically picked up from 31 per cent during the first five hours to 60 per cent by the end of the day in Sevti Devi Memorial Shishu Mandir polling centre. Overall, the constituency reported an average of 50 per cent.In comparison, a few kilometres down the road from the Mahavir Enclave polling station, Rajnagar in Palam constituency registered a scant 10 per cent. The reason for this was not hard to find: musclemen from both the major parties manning the gates outside Laxman Convent School proved to be a deterrent for voters. Palam village's electorate had no such problem: 50 per cent of them turned up.Delhi Cantonment constituency - where it is a toss-up between the Congress's Kiran Choudhury and the BJP's Karan Singh Kanwar - averaged only close to 35 per cent.In East Delhi's Vishwas Nagar constituency, booth 30 A had just two votes cast in the first hour and by 2.30 pm, it had swelled to just 190 (out of a possible 950). Trilokpuri saw heavy polling from the start, unlike in places like Mandawali and Patparganj, where it picked up only in the afternoon. In Kalyanpuri (Patparganj constituency) the turnout was high. In the Muslim majority Seelampur area in Gandhi Nagar constituency, the turnout was heavy with nearly 50 per cent of votes cast by noon.In south Delhi constituencies, there was 50-60 per cent turnout in the polling centres in JJ-clusters. But in the middle-class pocket, the turnout was as low as 30-35 per cent in Malviya Nagar, R.K. Puram, Hauz Khas and Okhla constituencies.Okhla, where there was in real terms a triangular contest between the Congress, the Samajwadi Party and the BJP candidates, the turnout was particularly low. ``The women preferred stay at home because the presence of such large contingents of police is creating a scare among them,'' said one voter. There was massive turnout from the JJ-clusters in R.K. Puram constituency.
