4% voting in 4 hours as midday sun beats down

KOLKATA: Voters in Kolkata sweated it out in serpentine queues on a day when the mercury touched 37.1 degrees. While polling was brisk in the early hours, the lines thinned out as the mid-day sun started beating down. The stifling weather led many to wonder why polls weren't held in winter.

"It seemed I will pass out standing in the heat," said Arunava Das, a voter at Taltala High School in central Kolkata. It was 10.30am, but the heat and humidity left the voters sweating. "I don't know why elections are routinely held in summer. April, you know, is the cruellest month of the year," said elderly Shankar Shah, also a voter from Taltala.

On Thursday , the thermometer showed 34 degrees at 9am. It jumped to 36 by 2pm, eventually settling at 37. The queues had started thinning by early afternoon at Beliaghata, Tangra and Rajabazar. As the scorching heat kept voters away, many feared that the empty booths might make it easier for false voters. "This is the time we are scared of. Majority of poll-malpractices happen in the afternoon. So, guarding the booth like a fortress during a siege is a challenge," said Barin Ghosh, a Congress polling agent at Collins Lane School.

"We don't have the luxury of queuing early to vote. We have our daily household chores. If the election is to secure democracy , why doesn't the election commission consider the weather while fixing the poll dates?" asked Banani De, who came to the Sales Tax office booth even as the mid-day sun was beating down. Polling percentage in north Kolkata was less than 45% at 11am and picked up to 49% at 3pm.

It could remain just as unpleasant when Salt Lake, New Town and parts of Dum Dum go to the polls on April 25, predicted the Met office. "A low pressure trough has formed between north Bengal and the Bangladesh coast. It has raised the wind speed that kept the temperature down by a couple of degrees on Thursday. But the discomfort index remained high and the mercury may rise to 39 degrees on Friday . There is yet no possibility of rain in Kolkata and south Bengal," said G C Debnath, deputy director-general, Regional Meteorological Centre.