Did Punjab vote even after deadline?

Chandigarh: The nearly 72 per cent polling in Punjab's rain-soaked voting day on Tuesday for 115 of the 117 assembly seats may be a 38-year record, but the feat would not have been possible without balloting continuing almost three hours after the 1700 hrs IST deadline.

If the final voting figures released by state election officials - 71.97 per cent polling by the state's 16.9 million electorate - are to be believed, up to two million (20 lakh) voters in Punjab voted after the scheduled end of voting.

State election officials in Chandigarh admitted that the voting continued well beyond the deadline as scores of voters had queued up outside polling stations well before 1700 hrs IST.

"People did not come out in heavy numbers during the day due to occasional rain in all parts of Punjab. But after 1530 hrs IST, the numbers increased. Many people were standing outside polling stations even after the 1700 hrs IST deadline. All those who had queued up by 1700 hrs IST were allowed to vote. In some polling stations, voting went till about 2000 hrs IST," an election official confirmed.

The heavy turnout beyond the deadline time was witnessed in the border district of Amritsar and Gurdaspur and a few polling stations in other Punjab districts.

At the 1700 hrs IST deadline, all news channels put the voting percentage at just over 50 per cent.

State election officials, while maintaining that voting was still continuing beyond 1700 hrs IST, unofficially put the voting percentage at around 60 per cent after 1730 hrs IST.

But at 2130 hrs IST, the final voting percentage put out by the state election office in Chandigarh was at nearly 72 per cent.

According to deputy chief electoral officer Amar Nath, 71.97 per cent of the electorate cast their franchise in Tuesday's election.

At 72 per cent, nearly 12.2 million of the electorate of 16.9 million cast their vote.

If the 1700 hrs IST figure of news channels is to be believed, over 8.45 million voters (50 percent of 16.9 million) had cast their vote by the evening deadline.

Is it that the remaining 3.7 million voters cast their vote after the 1700 hrs IST deadline?

Even if the over 60 per cent polling figure till 1730 hrs IST is to be believed, nearly two million voters would have voted after that.

The highest-ever voting percentage in the state was in the 1969 assembly poll when 72.27 per cent voters cast their franchise.

In population terms though, Tuesday's voting figure would be much higher than the 1969 figure because of the sheer growth of the electorate in 2007.