They came with walking sticks, ridding pillion on two-wheelers, in cars and autorickshaws, and were taken to the EVMs in wheelchairs or carried in on plastic chairs. But nothing could stop these senior citizens from getting their fingers inked.
Marulingamma, 95, hard of hearing and barely able to walk, was determined to cast her vote. She had to be brought to the polling booth by her sons on a bike. Once at the booth, she was placed on a wheelchair to be taken inside the voting centre in Tubinakere in Srirangapatna constituency. “We brought her because she was insistent on casting her vote,” said her son Kumara.
Bachanna Chikkakempanna, 95, cast his vote at the Government Higher Primary school Bendiganahalli in Hosakote Assembly constituency. He said he doesn’t remember the first time he voted, but called it a “habit just like his day-to-day chores”.
“How can I not vote? It is almost as important as eating and sleeping,” he said, as he entered the polling station.
Out of hospital to vote
Senior citizen Vanajakshi, who did not know her age, has been in the government hospital in Maddur for the past week to treat a wound in her leg and has been under observation for sugar levels as she is diabetic.
But that didn’t stop her from getting out of the hospital to cast her vote.
“I asked the doctors to discharge me from the hospital for a day. Now, I will go and get readmitted myself,” Vanajakshi said, a resident of Holagerehalli, which is a good 10 km from Maddur town.
