In reserved segments, voters came in droves
As always, voters in the reserved Assembly segments of Delhi flocked to polling booths on Thursday. This trend was observed in even those Lok Sabha constituencies that saw a comparitively low overall turnout, reports HT Correspondent.delhi Updated: May 09, 2009 00:31 IST
As always, voters in the reserved Assembly segments of Delhi flocked to polling booths on Thursday. This trend was observed in even those Lok Sabha constituencies that saw a comparitively low overall turnout.
South Delhi parliamentary constituency recorded the lowest voter turnout in the Capital this time. But amongst its 10 Assembly segments, the highest turnout was recorded in the two Scheduled Caste-reserved segments — Ambedkar Nagar (56.25 per cent) and Deoli (51.53 per cent).
In the other eight Assembly segments of this seat, voter turnout was almost entirely below 50 per cent. In East Delhi, high turnouts were recorded in Trilokpuri (58.74 per cent) and Kondli (56.22 per cent) — both reserved. In Northeast Delhi, the highest turnout was in the reserved Seemapuri Assembly segment (59.46 per cent). The turnout in the Gokalpur reserved segment (54.36 per cent) was also higher than the constituency’s average of 52.39 per cent.
“Though it would be difficult to pin a factor for this trend, there is clearly greater politicisation of these areas,” said Dr Anuja Agrawal of Department of Sociology, Delhi University. “They are more conscious of their right and need to vote,” she added. Political experts believe this trend would definitely help Congress in this election.
“The reserved constituencies also usually comprise many slum clusters, and these are traditionally Congress voters. Though the BSP is trying to consolidate the votes here, they still don’t have such a strong presence in Delhi,” said a political analyst who did not wish to be named.