Polling centres witness huge turnout of women, senior citizens

Vijayawada: The women and senior citizens reached polling stations in large numbers since morning hours. The huge turnout at the polling stations surprised the political parties and also the polling staff. The queue lines near polling stations were full with voters from 7 a.m to 6 p.m.

The voters, especially women and senior citizens, reached polling stations and stood in serpentine queues from 6:30 a.m. Nearly 1.95 crore women voters are in the state and majority of them cast their votes. The political circles are discussing the Dwcra women role in the election result.

The election staff also were surprised about the situation. The voters waited in queue lines when the mock polling was being done at polling stations from 6 a.m. They also feared about the scorching heat and it is also one of the reasons for them to visit the polling stations early.

Similar situation prevailed in all the 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh. But the EVMs did not function for four hours at various polling stations. The huge number of women voters and senior citizens returned from polling stations with disappointment. Interestingly, polling per cent was registered only 45 per cent at 4 p.m in three Assembly constituencies--Vijayawada East, Vijayawada West and Vijayawada Central --in the city limits.

The EVMs did not function at Shramik Vidyapeet polling station, Andhra Loyola College and Boyapati VMC School. The voters staged protest by raising slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Election Commission.

Ch Rajyam, speaking to The Hans India, said that she reached the polling station at 7 am along with her husband without having breakfast. But she could cast her vote at 12:30 pm only.

MLA Gadde Rammohan and MP Kesineni Srinivas's daughter Swetha reached the polling station and discussed the situation with returning officers.

At one stage, the voters locked the polling station at Mogulrajapuram. But finally the Election Commission regulated the situation by providing new EVMs. But some voters did not use their right to cast votes.

However, the TDP pins hopes on the huge number of women and senior citizens who turned out at the polling stations. Krishna district ZP chairman Gadde Anuradha said that the women voters cast their votes to the TDP. She said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi worked out a plan to stop the women support to TDP.