Jhargram’s elderly cast first vote, give thumbs up to doorstep ballot

Jhargram: Eighty-two-year-old Basanti Shit was among the first to cast her vote in the high-octane Bengal assembly elections through doorstep ballot on Tuesday, 11 days before phase-I of the marathon election begins in the state.
Shit exercised her franchise from the comfort of her home and her ballot paper was sealed in an envelope around 10.30am. Seven others from her ward — six of them octogenarians and the other a person with disability — simultaneously cast their votes.Four constituencies in Jhargram go to polls on March 27 and together they have 5,566 voters who are either above 80 or suffer from physical disabilities, thus making them eligible for doorstep ballots.
On Tuesday, a team comprising the presiding officer, polling officials and election agents of various parties, accompanied by CRPF personnel, walked up to Shit’s house. A cardboard structure enabled her to cast her vote in secret while all other family members were asked to step out. The ballot paper was then neatly folded into an envelope and sealed in front of her.
Shit’s grandson later told TOI that she felt delighted at the opportunity to vote from home. “She struggles to walk. The voting booth is 500 metres away. If she had wanted to vote there, we would have had to carry her. She is glad she could vote with dignity from home,” he said.
Gouri Patra, who is 80-plus, too had this unique experience. Around 86 teams of election officials will visit various households over the next six days to ensure that the elderly and the disabled get to vote.
The voting drive though was not without incident. Trinamool Congress ward leader Somnath Dey alleged that the BJP agent who was accompanying poll officials was campaigning for the party as well. BJP ward president Bappa Basak denied the allegation.
Residents who qualify to vote from home in West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia, where polling is to take place in the first phase, will also get a chance sometime this week. In West Midnapore, around 4,675 such persons have been identified in the six constituencies — Dantan, Keshari, Kharagpur, Garbeta, Salboni and Midnapore — and 65 teams will do the rounds to ensure they can vote.