Kolkata: Polling booths a few steps down, gated communities woke up to ‘Duare vote’ on Wednesday when the state went to poll in its second phase. For a majority of residents, it was the first time that they got to cast votes on their own campuses. With the convenience of polling at doorsteps, the residents, especially disabled or elderly people, did not have to miss out on voting due to health issues. For others, it is the SIR that ostensibly made them aware of their responsibility to choose who will govern the state for the next five years.This year, the EC made polling booths in several housing societies like Urbana, Manjulika B, Rail Vihar at Anandapur, Silver Spring on EM Bypass, Diamond City South near Tollygunge and Genexx Valley at Joka. Post 8 am, the residents of housing complexes took to queuing up outside their community halls guarded by CRPF personnel. The environment inside gated societies on poll day was more of excitement as the residents, after walking out with inked fingers, took selfies or teamed up for discussions around the poll battle.“This time we got respite from stepping out, previously we used to cast votes at Purushottam Academy. All of us, particularly senior citizens, have come together for this largest exercise of democracy,” said Debobrata Majumdar, a resident of Diamond City South at Tollygunge.At Urbana, around 900 voters cast their votes on the campus. “I have been living in this condominium since 2017 and this is the first time I got the comfort of voting on the campus,” said Arindam Sil, actor.On Wednesday, CRPF director general Gyanendra Pratap Singh inspected Silver Spring and spoke to the residents waiting for their turns to vote on the campus.Some residents of the housing complexes had to cast their votes outside because of different part numbers. Meera Agarwal, a resident of Urbana, said, “My son and daughter-in-law cast their votes on the campus while I had to go to Hossainpur FP Schoolto vote.”Sanjay Jhunjhunwala lives in Diamond City South but cast his vote at Bhowanipore. “I had not changed the address of my voter card, so I voted in my old locality,” he said. South City complex did not have any booth on campus; residents walked around 100 m to reach a private school for voting. Debasish Basu, a resident, said, “For elderly, we arranged golf carts that ferried them to the school’s gate, from there CRPF assisted them.”
