Free poha-jalebi for 3,000 early voters in Indore

Some 3,000 early voters in Indore in Madhya Pradesh on Monday were treated to free “poha-jalebi” by shopkeepers of the city’s renowned food street “56 Dukan” as part of efforts to increase voting in the state’s commercial capital.

Voting for the last eight of the 29 Lok Sabha seats in MP, including Indore, is underway at present.

“Around 3,000 persons who voted between 7am and 9.30 am were given free poha and jalebi at five establishments here. Such was the crowd that we needed five quintals of poha to feed all of them,” Gunjan Sharma, president of the traders’ association of the renowned array of shops called “56 Dukan”, told PTI.

Senior citizens and youth who voted for the first time were given free ice cream along with poha and jalebi, Sharma added.

Indore Lok Sabha seat is MP’s largest with 25,26,803 eligible voters and the number of candidates here, at 14, is also the state’s highest.

However, the withdrawal of nomination by Congress’s Akshay Kanti Bam has rendered the poll in Indore, which is considered a BJP bastion since 1989, a one-horse race. The BJP has fielded sitting MP Shankar Lalwani.

Observers were of the view that the turn of events involving Bam, who later joined the BJP, could affect voter turnout. Incidentally, the Congress has been asking people to opt for NOTA (None of the Above) to teach the BJP a lesson.