Winner on day of vote: note... QUEUE IS WHERE THE CASH IS

Kinsuk Basu, TT, Nov. 19: Basanti Ghorai's day starts with her daily chores at 6 in the morning. Today was different and it was not because of the bypoll to the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat.

The elderly Nandigram resident had to get ready for a long wait outside an ATM to collect cash for her granddaughter's wedding. Voting can wait, she said.

In the Cooch Behar and Tamluk (East Midnapore) Lok Sabha constituencies and the Manteswar (Burdwan) Assembly seat, where by-elections were held today, the queues outside ATMs were longer than those outside polling booths.

The voting percentage was, however, healthy. Moreover, as banks were closed in the areas where polling took place, ATMs were the only source of cash withdrawal.

In Nandigram, which is part of the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat, Basanti said her granddaughter's wedding was scheduled to be held in Delhi on November 26 and without adequate cash, "we can't plan anything".

"My daughter lives in Delhi. We had thought we would be able to withdraw some cash today," said Basanti, pulling the pallu of her sari to cover her withered face as she settled down on the career of her son's cycle.

Basanti and her son Chandan had travelled 5km to the nearest ATM, an SBI kiosk, but had to return after waiting for hours as the cash van had not arrived. The duo set out again around 11am in the hope of getting cash in their second attempt.

"We had planned to wrap this up by 10.30am but everything went haywire. We are going to the ATM again. We will return by afternoon, hopefully with some cash," Basanti said.

" Taka aage dada (money comes first)," she said, asked if she would vote.

In Manteswar, those outside a booth at Sathgachhia Free Primary School carried their ATM cards along with their voter cards. Once voters started getting calls from people standing in the queue outside an ATM 500 metres away, many of them left for the kiosk.

"Voting is not that important now. I have been struggling to gather cash to pay for a consignment," said Gautam Sarkar, a businessman in Sathgachhia. "Only after I manage to withdraw money will I think about voting," Sarkar said as he took off on his bike.

Poll observers said the voter turnout had exceeded their expectations.

In some places, the Opposition alleged rigging and intimidation of voters by Trinamul activists. Trinamul denied the charges.

As the day wore on, even a section of central force personnel on poll duty seemed caught up in the cash wash.

"The Rs 7 lakh we were given to meet election expenses is in Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes. We are requesting local traders to accept the notes. We are worried," said U.C. Das of the Seema Suraksha Bal, on poll duty in Tamluk.

Tax visit at bank

Two teams of income tax officials have visited the main office of the Raiganj Central Cooperative Bank in North Dinajpur since last evening. Earlier yesterday, Raiganj CPM MP Mohammad Salim had alleged that some Trinamul leaders had deposited unaccounted-for money in the bank.

The officials collected details on deposits in excess of Rs 2.5 lakh made in the bank's accounts over the past four days. The Centre has said deposits up to Rs 2.5 lakh will not be scrutinised. The bank has handed over to the tax officials details of 49 accounts where amounts exceeding Rs 2.5 lakh had been deposited since November 9.

Additional reporting by Indranil Sarkar and Main Uddin Chisti 

(Photo: The scenes outside polling booths and ATM counters on Saturday. The pictures are not indicative of what transpired as the poll percentages were 77.09 in Cooch Behar, 82.46 in Tamluk and 87.3 in Manteswar, according to last-available figures.)