Steel city was up and running from early Sunday morning with voters of all ages making a beeline outside polling booths to exercise their franchise for the prestigious Jamshedpur Lok Sabha seat.
Though the city woke up to a cloudy morning, most people preferred to vote as soon as the booths opened at 7am fearing a rising mercury later in the day.
By the end of the day, the urban Assembly segments recorded 66 per cent voting.
Long queues were seen at most booths in the city, disappointing many who had thought that voting would be thin in early hours. However, people showed great patience to be part of the democratic process.
“I had a business meeting in Ranchi at 11am. My brother and I thought of casting our votes by 7.30am and then proceeding to the state capital. Though we had a long queue in front of us, we waited till our turn came as the meeting could be rescheduled,” said Prabhu Singhania, who was standing outside KMPM Vocational College booth in Bistupur.
Long queues were seen in almost all the 1,885 booths across the constituency which has 17.01 lakh voters. Except for EVM glitches at Jugsalai, Mango, Dimna Road, Mango Zakirnagar, Kadma, Bagunhatu, Potka, Patamda and a few other places where voting started after over an hour, people showed great patience.
However, some senior citizens who were in the queue since 6am thought of going back home and returning in the afternoon to cast their votes.
“I was in the queue since 6am. But I lost my patience after hearing about the EVM glitches. I returned in the afternoon to vote,” said Yakub Rahman (69), who cast his vote in Zakirnagar.
Swetabh Jha, a Sonari resident, came all the way from Nagpur to vote. “I work at a private firm in Nagpur. I took leave from my office to come here and vote,” he added.
Sunita Prajapati (26) was excited to vote. “I feel very excited. I voted in 2014 and am here again. I feel it is my duty to vote for a better India,” the arts graduate said.
Srijan Choudhary (70), a retired government employee, was tired waiting for his turn at Amar Jyoti School in Mango. “I reached around 5.30am. The queue was long and I thought of waiting for my turn. I am a diabetic and started feeling tired. So I took rest under a tree for a while before going back home. I’ll be back in the afternoon,” the Pardih resident added.