Firstpost

Azamgarh: Azamgarh’s voters are not lazy. Minutes after the gates of Shibli Postgraduate College were opened this morning, men, youngsters and burqa clad women thronged the five polling booths in the institute.

Mukhrat Ahmed, 72, was one of them. “Bad roads and power supply are as important issues here as the Batla House encounter. I hope people consider this while casting their vote,” he said.

Sisters Aksaa Khan and Saba Khan were among the first-timers. “It is a different feeling. It feels as if we can bring change,” they said.

Akshay Lal kept the afternoon slot for voting. He was busy serving omlettte and tea to the media personnel. “Don’t think that I will not go for voting. I will go post lunch. You can see the rush at my shop right now,” said Lal, not disclosing the party symbol he would choose.

The scene is no different at DAV school in civil lines area. Since early morning, voters were seen in queue waiting to make the big change. “I read in the newspaper that in the first phase, 69 percent voting happened. These are good signs for our state,” said a polling officer on duty at the school.

In Azamgarh district, 20 percent of the voters had cast their votes till 11 am.

Out of 59 assembly constituencies in which polling is in progress today, 10 fall in Azamgarh.

The assembly constituencies’ seats are spread over four districts — Aazamgarh, Balia, Mau and Ghazipur.

There are are 1.48 lakh registered voters in Azamgarh. At 14 percent, Muslims form the single largest community in the district, followed by yadavs and dalits (18 percent each).

Government has deployed 113 CRPF companies and 111 PAC companies in the district to ensure that no untoward incidence takes place during polling. In total, around 32000 security personnel and polling officials are on duty for the second phase of Uttar Pradesh elections, in progress, today.