NEW DELHI: “I went to vote at a polling booth near Akshardham, and to my surprise, there was no Congress button on the electronic voting machine,” Mukesh, a first-time voter, said in a state of confusion and frustration.
Mukesh, a staunch Congress supporter, was caught off guard by the news that Congress and AAP had formed a poll alliance under a 4:3 seat arrangement.
The polling booth where the 18-year-old went to cast his vote was in the East Delhi constituency, where the fight was between the BJP's Harsh Malhotra and the AAP's Kuldeep Kumar.
Mukesh was not the only one. Another woman named Shilpa, who went to exercise her franchise in favour of a particular party, told this newspaper that she was unable to make a perfect choice between the two.
“The moment I saw EVM, I was stuck for a moment in thought. I had decided to vote for ‘X’ but thought ‘Y’ would be better. After considering it, I voted for X, and now I regret it,” she said in this paper.
Meanwhile, the excitement of casting votes in the Lok Sabha polls was short-lived for some electors in the city, who found their names missing from the voters’ list even as they claimed that their documents were in order.
Shahnawaz Ahmed, a carpenter in northwest Delhi, had to return without casting his vote at a polling booth in Jahangirpuri.
Ahmed was accompanied to the polling booth by one of his female relatives, who could cast her vote as her name was on the list.
“I am carrying my Aadhaar card. The polling agents here say that I cannot vote as my name is not on the voters’ list,” Ahmed said.