Allahabad: Voting went off peacefully in the twin Lok Sabha constituencies of Allahabad and Phulpur today, though there were some complaints of electoral malpractices and discrepancies in the electoral roll at some places. Both the constituencies registered higher voter turn-outs compared to the 2009 Lock Saba elections. Polling began on a brisk note and the turn-out in both constituencies had reached close to 20 per cent by 11 AM.
However, the pace slackened as the day progressed which could be attributed to the extremely hot and humid weather conditions, official sources said, adding that by the time voting came to a close at 6 PM, about 58 per cent of voters had exercised their franchise in Phulpur while the figure for Allahabad was approximately 55 per cent. The voter turn-out in Phulpur was only 38.41 per cent in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, while in Allahabad it was 43.41 per cent.
There was no report of violence from any part of the district where 324 out of a total number of 2,098 polling booths had been declared “sensitive”, with heavy deployment of security forces in place to tackle any eventuality. Central para-military forces and teams of Delhi Police and Punjab Police, besides the local police, had been pressed into service by the Election Commission to ensure free and fair polls.
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party has alleged that people were prevented from casting their votes at a number of booths in the Allahabad constituency, especially in the rural trans-Ganga region.
According to AAP spokesman Satyam Rai, most of such complaints were received from Assembly segments like Karchhana and Meja, both of which are held by Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party.
Also, residents of the city were seen complaining at a number of polling centres that they were turned away since their names were not in the voters' list even though they had filled and submitted the requisite forms. However, election officials maintained that they did not receive any such complaint.
