Hyderabad, April 16: About two crore voters, or 65 per cent of the 3.12 crore voters, many of them first-timers, participated in the first phase of elections in the state on Thursday.
This was way less than the 67.96 per cent who polled in the elections in the same areas in 2004. While analysts attributed it to the heat, the lower turnout marked the failure of the umpteen campaigns to get people out to vote.
Observers were divided over who a smaller turnout would benefit: The ruling party or the Opposition.
The voting was almost completely peaceful in polls in 22 Lok Sabha seats and 154 Assembly segments, except for minor clashes.
In many upmarket areas, people could be seen queuing up at the polling booths in the early part of the day. The EC advanced the poll timings by an hour, catching many voters off-guard. Voters stood in long queues even by the end of the polling at 4 pm and the authorities allowed the last person in the queue at 4 pm to vote. the others were turned away.
Mild tension prevailed in Anna Nagar in Secund-erabad Cantonment Assem-bly constituency as large number of voters could not exercise their franchise till 4 pm. In Garbham village in Vizianagaram district polling continued till 8 pm because of faulty electronic voting machines.
Amidst the escalated extremist violence in neighbouring Chattisgarh and Orissa, polling in 2,337 stations in Maoist-affected areas went on briskly.
The only major incident of poll disruption was in Ieeja village in Mahbubnagar district where irate mobs destroyed EVMs in 14 polling stations to protest the delimitation of constituencies.
“The village was in Gadwal Assembly constituency and it was shifted to Alampur in the delimitation process,” explained the Chief Electoral Officer, Dr I.V. Subba Rao.
Repolling was likely to be ordered in 19 polling stations including 14 in Ieeja.
There were also reports of villagers boycotting polls either in protest against lack of infrastructure facilities or accusing the police of excesses.
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