“If I fail to vote, that effectively means I’m no more alive. I’m dead,” says Jahangir Bi with conviction in her voice. She firmly believes what she said, like many of her ilk who sat near the row of polling stations in Shamshabad on Wednesday.
“I didn’t get a voter slip, but I somehow managed to find my name and vote,” she says. Kishtamma, another woman, sent her son home to fetch her voter slip so that she could find her polling booth.
“I was out of station, and came here directly to cast my vote,” she says, making it clear that she would budge only after casting her vote.
Sunita Patel, also from Shamshabad, was not so sure though. She and her husband Jayesh Patel, a bank employee, had been running from one booth to another, trying to figure out where their names were. She did not receive voter slips, and couldn’t even find them near the polling station.
“We came determined to vote this time, but can’t find anybody to guide us. Arrangements are so bad,” she complains. Mobbed by voters, a panchayat official was seen frantically flipping through the voter slips in his hand, while a few more voters protested about their missing names.
“Anganwadi workers didn’t distribute the voter slips at all. They claim they received slips only yesterday [on Tuesday],” bemoans Shiva Avula, another disappointed voter.
At Maheshwaram, there were more bitter complaints. Residents of the tribal hamlet cried foul about missing names.
“My relatives, Kavitha Ramavath and Munavath Valli voted in the recently-concluded ZPTC and MPTC elections. But now their names are missing along with many others from our hamlet. We smell a rat in the whole thing,” frowns Ganesh Naik.
Barla Jangamma from Nandi Vanaparthi village of Yacharam mandal, B. Lakshmi and Jangaiah from Shamshabad too had similar complaints.
Reports of faulty EVMs delaying the polling process poured in from all sides. However, those kept in the reserve came to the rescue of officials. Otherwise, polling in rural part of Ranga Reddy district was largely uneventful.
Voting in the district was on in full swing before noon, but slackened afterwards. In the first two hours of polling, about 12.5 per cent voters exercised their franchise, which rose to 26 per cent by 11 a.m. By 1 p.m., it reached almost 40 per cent, only to slog to 57.6 per cent by 5 p.m. The official communiqué from the district collectorate put the total polling by 6 p.m. at nearly 60 per cent.
