Kolkata: An 85-year-old voter who conscientiously voted in all previous elections was denied the opportunity to do so on technical grounds on Wednesday despite her name being there on the voter list. Anuradha Dasgupta, who lives in Bansdroni under the Tollygunge assembly constituency, went to the polling booth at Khanpur Primary School for Boys around noon with the voter slip issued by the EC and her voter card.Seeing the senior citizen, everyone was accommodating and Dasgupta was ushered into the booth in no time. It was when the first polling officer checked her name that he pointed to a problem. Dasgupta, who was eligible for home voting, had been marked ‘absent’!“Being a super-senior citizen, I was eligible to cast my vote at home. But I fell ill on April 17 and was hospitalised. I was still in hospital when the voting team came on April 22 and was unable to cast my ballot. I was discharged only the next day, April 23,” Dasgupta pointed out, arguing that while she was not present for home voting, she was there in person at the booth to vote on Wednesday.Caught in a bind, the presiding officer tried calling up higher-ups to find a solution. “We feel bad that an 85-year-old person who is a legitimate voter and has come to vote is unable to do so,” said the presiding officer. Over the next 45 minutes, Dasgupta tried to argue that since her vote had not been cast and polling time was not over, she should be able to vote. Most present agreed that she was correct but said that given that she had been marked absent, they were helpless. After around an hour’s wait, Dasgupta’s patience ran out and she returned home disappointed at having missed a vote in many years.
