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Kannauj, 13 May (HS). Due to pleasant weather in Kannauj Lok Sabha constituency since Monday morning, voters showed enthusiasm in exercising their franchise in large numbers. Voters reached the polling booths in large numbers and voted in the great festival of democracy. Although the pace of voting slowed down a bit at 1 pm, voters started appearing at the booths again after 3 pm.
Voters exercised their franchise amid sporadic incidents in the district. Under strict vigil of the police administration, 19 lakh 82 thousand voters had to exercise their franchise at 1519 polling stations in the district. A total of 15 candidates are in the fray for this seat. Apart from SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, BJP MP Subrata Pathak and BSP Imran Bin Zafar are the main candidates. According to voters, this time the contest in Kannauj was between SP's Akhilesh Yadav and BJP's Subrata Pathak.
The voting process started at the polling booths in the perfume city Kannauj from 7 am today. Sporadic drizzle also occurred at some places during voting. Long queues of male and female voters started appearing at polling booths across the district including Tirwa, Kannauj, Gursahaiganj, Chhibramau, Saurikh. The special thing was that this time the enthusiasm towards voting was clearly visible among the voters. From District Election Officer Shubhrant Kumar Shukla to SP Amit Kumar Anand took stock of many polling stations in the district and saw the security arrangements.
BJP candidate Subrata Pathak said that this election is not for the MP but for the country and voting is being done for Modi ji. He cast his vote at Bholanath Dharamshala in Kannauj along with his wife Neha Pathak and mother Saroj Pathak. Whereas MLA Archana Pandey along with her family exercised her franchise at the polling booth of Chhibramau. District Minister Aseem Arun also kept monitoring the elections in the district along with his supporters. On the other hand, Tirva MLA Kailash Rajput had a clash with some police personnel at Saurikh's booth. He said that some police personnel are voting in favor of SP, they should be removed immediately. BJP people were seen threatening the police personnel deployed at a booth in the district, SP has complained about this to the Commission. It was told that at booth 155 of Kannauj, BJP supporters were accused of threatening SP voters. SP has also accused the Muslim voters of being slow in voting from booth number 301 to 305 of Kannauj.
BSP candidate Imran Bin Zafar complained to the SP about Dalits not being allowed to vote in Khandewar of Gursahaiganj. A fake voter was thrown out by the police at the polling center in Chhibramau. District Election Officer and SP inspected many polling booths of the district including booth 295, 297, 298, 296 of Kannauj. Voters enthusiastically exercised their franchise at the pink polling booth set up in Mandi Committee in Tirwa and the pink booth set up in DN College. The special thing was that even the disabled and elderly people were enthusiastic about voting. An old woman from Ambedkar Nagar reached Dinanath College with the help of a rod and cast her vote. A disabled person exercised his franchise in the Mandi Committee. Here the police personnel engaged in security helped in taking the disabled voter to the booth.
A police officer got into an altercation with BJP supporters when a crowd was present at the polling booth set up on Thathiya Road in Tirwa. After which the crowd was strictly dispersed. Here SP supporters alleged that BJP workers were influencing the voters. On the other hand, Divisional Commissioner Amit Kumar Gupta, who reached Tirwa area while visiting Kannauj, and top police officials, after seeing the arrangements at Tirwa Kotwali, also inspected the polling center of Tirwa. After this, Aher reached and the police officer also interrogated the agents at the polling station. Instructions were also given that fake voting should not take place under any circumstances. The BJP MP accused Archana Yadav, the presiding officer posted at a booth, and complained that she was getting votes in favor of SP. SP polling agents from a polling booth in the district accused the administration of throwing them out.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also reached Kannauj around 2 pm. He inquired about the problems faced by the polling agents at the booth. Akhilesh also took information from the party leaders and polling agents about where the administration caused trouble and what tactics the administration or BJP people are adopting to influence the elections. Akhilesh also inquired about the condition of polling centres.
In Kannauj parliamentary constituency, till 5 pm, 60.36 percent voting had taken place in Tirwa, 60.32 percent in Kannauj, 57.83 percent in Chhibramau, 58.59 percent in Bidhuna, 58.19 percent in Rasulabad. According to the Election Commission, 59.06 percent voting had taken place in this parliamentary constituency till 5 pm and the scheduled time of voting is till 6 pm and it will take some time for the final polling to come. No major incident took place during the voting in Kannauj district, but the process of voting continued unabated amidst sporadic clashes and allegations and counter-allegations.