Hyderabad: It’s not only the Parliament, Assembly or municipal polls, but also the MLC elections which witnessed enthusiastic participation of senior citizens on Sunday. The elections were held amidst tight security and Covid-19 pandemic.
Since morning, senior citizens accompanied by their children or grand children, stood in queues to cast their vote at the polling booths. On seeing long queues, a few senior citizens returned to their home and came back again after lunch to exercise their franchise.
As large number of candidates was in fray for Mahbubnagar-Rangareddy-Hyderabad graduates’ constituency, officials of Election Commission of India (ECI) used jumbo ballot boxes and papers.
“We waited for over 30 minutes in the queue for entering the polling booth in Malkajgiri. It took eight minutes for us to complete the voting process,” retired Principal Scientist of Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University, G Nageswara Rao said.
Even before the conclusion of the election at 4 pm, a large number of people were standing in queue to cast their vote, Rao said for whom every election means a responsibility and exercising his franchise without fail.
Since 1969 Rao actively cast his vote in every election. Be it the Lok Sabha, Assembly or municipal elections, he queues up at the designated booth to select a candidate of his choice. On Sunday too, he came to the polling station in Malkajgiri, which is 7 km from his house in Sainikpuri and voted.
Several senior citizens faced problems because of non-availability of wheel-chairs to shift them to the polling station. Another problem faced by senior citizens was long distance to polling stations. A few elderly persons residing in Malkajgiri had to cast their vote in polling booth in Medchal.
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