1 day Ago
Pune: At a polling station in Kondhwa, an unexpected friendship developed between two men who were in a dilemma over whom to entrust their cellphones with before they went inside the booth to cast their votes. It was decided that Ramdas Kharade would go inside first after handing over his phone to Prakash Tipnis. Then, Kharade would wait outside the booth with Tipnis' phone till he returned after exercising his franchise.
Deal done, both went inside the booths one after the other and voted. Satisfied at doing their "democratic duty", they decided to visit a nearby cafeĢ for a cup of tea. But not many were as lucky.
An IT professional from Hinjewadi IT Park visited a polling station in Wakad during lunch break but returned without exercising his franchise because he couldn't find a place to keep his cellphone outside the polling station. "I work with a multinational firm, and we weren't given a holiday for voting, but still came with an intent to exercise my rights during the lunch break. The Election Commission officials should have provided temporary lockers or some options for keeping mobile phones outside the booths so that people like me wouldn't be forced to return without voting," Anil Kumar said.
Strict implementation of mobile phone ban inside polling stations caused inconvenience to voters in some areas and led to crowding outside booths. Many voters waited outside the booths clutching mobile phones of their relatives and colleagues until they stepped out of the booths after casting their votes. Nachiket, another voter, waited outside the polling station on Datta Mandir Road in Wakad with his nine-month-old daughter, while his wife went inside the polling booth to vote, leaving her cellphone with him.
"I will go inside to vote only after she steps out after voting so that she can take care of our daughter and hold my cellphone," he said. Sanjay Kaygude from Thergaon returned home after poll officials refused to keep his cellphone. Police and poll officials in many areas asked people to make their own arrangements to keep their cellphones outside the booths.
However, some police officials on duty at polling stations agreed to keep the phones in their custody to help voters exercise their franchise. "We provided an option to voters to keep their cellphones with us till they returned so that they do not get frustrated and go home without voting," a police official at a polling station in Wakad's Venunagar said. At another school in Kondhwa, a group of voters complained to Hadapsar's MNS candidate Sainath Babar that many people were going away without casting their votes owing to the ban on carrying cellphones inside the booths.
"Please do something," one of them pleaded. Babar then spoke to poll officials and informed voters that they could carry phones inside the booths provided they were switched off..
