Lok Sabha Polls 2014: Gujarati early birds vote first in Varanasi

VARANASI: The entire east UP region was observing the festival of democracy in grand style on Monday, but the scene at Agrasen Mahajani Inter College in Pukke Mohal was something special.

Pukke Mohal establishes why the oldest living city is also considered as the oldest cosmopolitan city of the world. It has developed in layers along Ganga and the areas falling close to the Ganga bank are known as the first layer and also as Pukke Mohal. People from different castes and states live here.

The Gujaratis, who have turned into Banarasis after living due to dwelling here for centuries, have also their pockets in the vicinity of Agrasen Mahajani College. Their polling booths are located in this college, which is also surrounded by a population of Khatris.

In a Banarasi mood, one Sagar Mehrotra defined the voting pattern at this booth. He said, "Gujarati aur Jaini log subah jaldi uth jate hai. Hum (Khatri) log thoda aram pasand hote hai. Isiliye voting bhi isi pattern par huyi (the Gujarati and Jain people wake up early in the morning while we (khatris) like our resting time. This pattern was visible in voting too)."

The polling staff at this station informed said that a long queue of voters, mainly Gujaratis, was evident at one booth while other booths witnessed a low turnout. But after 11am, the queues at other booths started stretching while the crowd reduced on the Gujaratis-dominated booth where Gujaratis were queuing up. The people associated with Kashi Gujarat Samaj like Bhure Bhai of Gujarati Dusdishawal and Nagar Bhai, had also established their counters to assist voters.

They said, majority of Gujarati votes, which are 40,000 in Varanasi constituency, were cast is early in the morning. Unlike other localities, where even betel and tea kiosks were closed, many food outlets were open here catering serving traditional dishes like 'mathri-chhola' could be found opened in this locality while security personnel were also in relax mood here in comparison to other parts of city.