Polling in Darjeeling hills - Surprisingly Peaceful and Cheerful

Polling in Kalimpong’s 224 voting booths - 210 regular booths and 14 auxiliary booths (in areas where voter numbers were above 1200) went surprisingly peaceful, well organized, disciplined, energetic and exhaustive.

According to Medical Officers in charge Dr E Lyngdoh and Dr Arjun Kumar Bag based at the polling centre at Kalimpong College, “there were no known reported incidents of any violence in Kalimpong”. However, two police officers suffered from exhaustion symptoms at the Polling Centre at Kalimpong College. One Traffic Constable – Tirtha Bishwakarma from Bhalukhop had convulsion fits, while another suffered from hypertension. (Photos attached).

The polling which began at 7am, saw a brisk turnover from early morning and by 4 pm had all but finished in the Kalimpong town areas and the polling officers were impatient to finish and deposit their reports and voting machines at Kalimpong College but had to wait till 5 pm.  Booths from the outlying areas were yet to arrive at Kalimpong College by 8pm and the necessary tabulation would continue all night long, according to chief Election Officer, Prem Bardewa.

Elections in Kalimpong were guided by enthusiastic Nari Morcha volunteers and there was an air of joviality and gregariousness. The old, sick and handicapped were forwarded to the front of the polling lines and the voting streams were steady and well organized.

Of the 10 names on the voting machines, the first at No 1 was that of BJPs Jaswant Singh whose symbol was the “Lotus” and the last at No 10 was of Ram Ganesh Baraik of Naxalbari who stood as an Independent Candidate with the symbol of a “Blackboard”.

1)    Jaswant Singh,     BJP,                        Darjeeling,     Lotus
2)    Jibesh Sarkar,      CPIM,                     Siliguri,          Hammer & Sickle
3)    Dawa Norbula,      INC,                       Darjeeling,     Hand
4)    Hari Das Thakur,   BSP,                      Siliguri,          Elephant
5)    Abhijit Majumdar    CPI (ML)               Siliguri,          Flag with 3 stars
6)    Niranjan Saha        Amra Bangalee      Siliguri,          Battery & Torch
7)    Baidhanath Roy    Indn Ppls Fwd Blk    Siliguri           Candles
8)    Arun Kr Agarwal    Independent           Siliguri           Railway Engine
9)    Nitu Jai                Independent           Siliguri           Electric Pole
10)  Ram Ganesh Baraik    Independent      Naxalbari       Blackboard

Nari Morcha ladies were actively joking and showing Lotus signs with both hands while the men present were showing Lotus signs with just one hand. The atmosphere was business like – with a slight drizzle in the morning and fairly good weather all day long.