As poll day dawned in Chandigarh on Saturday, colony voters once again came out in force, leaving their urban counterparts behind.
Long queues outside polling booths in colonies reflected a stark difference in voting behaviour between the rural and urban parts of the City Beautiful. Even in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections colony voters boasted a turnout of 74%, compared to urban areas’ 68%.
This time, of the 6.59 lakh enrolled voters in Chandigarh, a staggering 3 lakh voters are residents of colonies.Housing nearly half of the constituency’s voter base, the 25 colonies in Chandigarh remained at the heart of campaigning for both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress.
On Saturday, at some booths in colonies, voters were seen pacing outside as early as 5.30 am. A possible reason cited for the enthusiasm to vote early was that most of them could not skip work and wanted to leave for their respective jobs as soon as possible.
Although the election commission did not release any data on rural and urban voting percentages on Saturday, ground reports indicated that colonies and villages voted much more vigorously than those in sectors. Compared to serpentine queues in colonies, including Palsora, Dhanas, Kajheri, Sector 56, Sector 38 West, Dadumajra, Maloya, Sector 52, Mauli Jagran and Hallo Majra, the polling booths in sectors saw voters trickling in with little to no wait time.
Narinder Chaudhary, president of Dalit Raksha Dal, Dadumajra, said, “Since as early as 5.30 am, people started queuing up. There was a lot of enthusiasm among colony voters. But the voting process was very slow, and as promised, there were no adequate arrangements for drinking water, no tents for people waiting in the sun and even no fans inside the booths.”
Maya Ram of Hallo Majra said, “Colonies play a major role in every election, and this time also, people are voting in large numbers, which shows they want change. Party workers of both the BJP and Congress were seen making a beeline for the colonies to ensure they enthused their workers and supporters enough to vote.”
Even in 2019, the top four areas with highest voter turnout were also colonies, with Sector 25 leading the charge at 85.41%, followed closely by Maloya Colony (84.52%), Dadumajra Colony (84%) and Manimajra’s Indira Colony (83.64%).
Looking at the track record of colonies, both the BJP and the Congress focused their campaigns colony voters. BJP MP from Delhi Manoj Tiwari, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath and Union minister Anurag Thakur held public rallies in colonies. Even from the Congress, AAP supremo and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal held a roadshow in Bapu Dham Colony in Sector 26.