PUNE: AAfter the polling day in Kothrud constituency began on a sluggish note, it saw an upsurge during the afternoon. The total turnout for the constituency was 56.57 per cent by the end of the day. 

Kothrud constituency was continuously in the limelight owing to the controversy over the candidacy of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State President Chandrakant Patil. After Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had given the ticket to Patil who is a native of Kolhapur, a tough fight from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) candidate Kishore Shinde who campaigned against him as a ‘candidate from outside’ as opposed to the ‘local candidate’, was on the cards. 

“It doesn’t matter who does the work here as many times, the person who works quietly without headlines in the newspaper, actually strikes a chord with the voters than those who are in newspaper headlines. I believe here in Kothrud, most of the people voted for the political party than the person,” Sunanda Mahajan, a resident of Kothrud said. 

She added, “It is also disheartening that the same people who opposed fielding a candidate from outside Pune in the constituency, will still vote for him for the sake of his party.” 

“Today, I voted for development. It is not just about whom I vote in my constituency, but for the state. So I, just like many other people, voted for the political party,” said Kothrud resident Asmita Mavlankar. 

However, the general opinion amongst the people from backward socio-economic strata was that no matter who they elected, their day-to-day struggle was still far from over. 

“I have to work day and night to make my ends meet and I don’’t think that who wins will change my life in any way. It has never changed before,” autorickshaw driver Dilip Pasalkar said. 

He further added, “I do feel that the fight between the candidate who was from Kothrud, and the one who was outside Pune, will certainly affect the dynamics of voting here.”

While the senior citizens turned out in large numbers in Kothrud, it was observed that the response of young voters in the constituency was quite low. 

“It is very alarming that young voters didn’’t show up for voting in numbers that we had expected. Until afternoon, the number was very low. May be, since the polling day was clubbed with the weekend, many people may have taken this opportunity to take a vacation,” said Sagar Rode of Webcasting Team at More Vidyalay polling booth in Kothrud.