Ailing principal travels 300km from Kolkata to vote

RANCHI/DUMKA: With an oxygen tube on her face, 59-year-old Renuka Mishra travelled six hours covering 300km, from Kolkata to her polling booth in Dumka on Sunday.
The principal of a government middle school at Khajuria in Dumka, Mishra had been on medical leave and was undergoing treatment in Kolkata. She had been suffering from acute bronchitis since January and both her lungs had failed.Mishra is now totally dependent on oxygen cylinders to breathe. She will retire in January 2020.
Despite her health, Mishra could not be dissuaded by anyone from exercising her franchise on the final day of the Lok Sabha election.
She turned up early at the Dumka Club polling booth in an ambulance provided by the district administration.
Talking to TOI over the phone, Dumka DC-cum-district electoral officer Mukesh Kumar said they received an application from Mishra around May 12 seeking help in exercising her vote. Kumar said: “For us, each vote mattered to increase the poll percentage. Her commitment has impressed us all, which is why we readily agreed to extend all help to ensure that she gets to vote. She is a teacher by profession who led by example for the democracy.”
Mishra’s son Avinash Vatsal, who works with an MNC in Kolkata, said they are originally from Lalpokhra area in Dumka but live in Kolkata. Initially, the family wasn’t keen on allowing her to travel for vote, but on her insistence, they got in touch with the district administration to explore options. “I drove my mother in my car from Kolkata on Saturday. From our home in Lalpokhra, the administration provided a special ambulance to facilitate her voting,” Vatsal said.