Holiday mood in housing complexes, residents troop down to cast votes
Times of India | 2 June 2024
Kolkata: As Kolkata went to polls in the last phase of Lok Sabha election on Saturday, residents of high-rises and housing complexes soaked in the holiday mood, be it chatting with the members of gated communities or having lunch together. Some residents, who had poll booths on their campuses, also helped polling officials manage the crowd of voters from outside.
Around 2,500 residents of South City housing complex on Prince Anwar Shah Road cast their votes at South City International School along with around 500 others from adjacent areas like Poddar Nagar. South City arranged electric rickshaws or totos to take senior citizens from their towers to the booth, according to Arup Ghosh, secretary of the welfare body. He said there was also a separate line for senior citizens in the booth.
About 250 residents of Kusum Apartment on Gurusaday Road in Ballygunge cast their votes at their booth in Modern High School along with neighbours from other housing complexes in the area. Shyamal Mitra, chairman of Kusum Apartments Society, said, “I think maximum residents from our building exercised their voting rights. Polling passed off peacefully and our experience is different from what we had to face over 25 years ago when our complex gates had been locked by miscreants and we could not step out to vote.”
Meghamallar at Golpark, one of the city’s oldest housing complexes, had over 250 voters. T Shanker, a resident, said, “We went to cast our votes at Kamala Chatterjee School in Gariahat in the morning. Today is a holiday for us. We remained indoors with family members till the afternoon while we will go out for dinner at night.”
Around 700 residents of Urbana voted in a nearby school with other voters in Anandapur. Rajesh Kumar, president of the resident’s core committee in Silver Spring said, “About 550 residents cast their votes in a school close to our complex. Later we had tea and snacks in the afternoon.”
Residents of Balaka Abasan in New Town voted on their campus. Two polling booths came up on Neelam Abasan campus at Nimta in Dum Dum constituency – one for residents and onefor outsiders. Debashis Das, board of directors at the complex said, “About 475 residents voted on our campus today while around 1,425 people came from adjacent areas to cast their votes. ”
(With inputs from Aaheli Chowdhury and Aritraja Mukherjee)