It rained intermittently all day. Some EVMs malfunctioned and there were long delays. Many voters don’t even live in the city anymore. But on April 29, they overcame all obstacles and cast their votes.

With voter turnout touching 84.06 per cent at 5pm, with another hour of polling left, the final figure for Bidhannagar was bound to outstrip the 2021 polling figure of 66.47 per cent. By midnight, as data from more booths were added, the figure stood at 86.26 per cent. For Rajarhat New Town, the polling percentage then stood at 93.6.

Flying in to vote

Diya Bose, who lives in Bangalore, doesn’t remember the last time she voted, but this year, she paid almost double the airfare to come and get inked.

“Flight tickets from Bangalore usually cost between Rs 7,000 and 9,000, and more during Durga puja, but on the eve of the elections, they shot up to Rs 13,000 one way. Still, all four members of my family have flown down,” said the AL Block voter. “Many of my Bengali friends in Bangalore have done the same. Why, even my domestic help bought a flight ticket to come and vote in her village! Our flight was packed.”

Nayonika Bhadury, who has been living in Mumbai for four years now, makes it a point to come to town every Puja, but this was the first time she came down to vote. “I had a personal commitment here last week, but extended my stay so I could vote. So many of my friends have come to vote from Gurgaon and Bangalore that we are planning a get-together in the evening,” said the CA Block voter after getting her finger inked. “Flight ticket prices doubled for those who booked at the last minute. More so as Friday is May Day and we’re looking at an extended weekend.”

“Five out of 10 outstation folks have come home to cast their votes despite this being the middle of the week,” said Jishnu Bhattacharya, booth-level officer of BA Block.

He has seen people who have been aloof about voting much of their life suddenly taking an interest. “It’s all because of SIR. There’s a 62-year-old lady who has applied online and become a new voter. Her husband, 68, wanted to enrol as well but he was late for this election,” he added. Bhattacharya’s booth at Hariyana Vidya Mandir had seen 636 votes cast out of 840 (75.7 per cent) by 5pm.

Several autorickshaw drivers too agreed that the queues were longer than they had ever seen in places like New Town Mela ground. “This must be due to SIR only,” smiled Gautam Mondal, while waiting for a passenger to return after voting in New Town.

But SIR cast a shadow more prominent than the inked finger photo status of several voters on social media dedicating their vote to those who are not being allowed to cast theirs. Rupsha Das of Sukhobroshti was one such voter denied by SIR. She had accompanied her husband Amit Das to the booth, despite her name not being on the list. “We used to be voters in Bali but were marked absent there as our house stays locked. Together we applied at the Rajarhat BDO office for a shift of address. My husband made it to the list, but not me. Since I am not even on the deletion list, I have no idea about my status. I really wanted to vote this time as we are back in Calcutta after spending a decade in Pune,” she said wistfully.

Vote as a voice

Sohini Majumder lives in Kharagpur but comes over during elections to cast her vote. “It’s easy for me as I live a few hours’ drive away. But this time, many friends have come from Bangalore and one even from Poland, specifically to vote. One reason is that after the SIR episode, they feel it may complicate matters if they forgo their vote, but also, they want to send out a message to the government to create job opportunities here,” said the AC Block voter.

“No one wants to stay away from their families, but there are just no jobs in Bengal. The Kharagpur region, where I live, is a heavy industrial belt that hires mainly the labour class. The town is known for the IIT, which attracts the best minds in the country, but the students all leave the state after getting their degrees,” says Sohini, who works remotely in content development.

Diya feels the same pain at having to live away from her joint family in AL Block. “Despite having a house in Salt Lake, we have to live in Bangalore, where the rent goes through the roof, and traffic is a nightmare. We tell our Kannadiga friends how lucky they are to have been born in a state with so many opportunities. As for Bengal, if a Sector V employee gets laid off, he will be jobless unless he leaves. Even our domestic help in Bangalore doesn’t want to return to this state,” says Diya, who works in the biotech sector.

Obstacle course

The urgency to go vote wasn’t restricted to the youth. Cancer survivor Prabir Kumar Dutta overcame immense weakness to cast his vote. “I voted after seven years,” said the AJ Block resident. “I’m frail, had to be helped to the booth by my family members and later the on-duty jawans, but I knew I had to do it. This year, more than ever, Bengal needed my vote,” said the 78-year-old. “Whoever comes to power needs this firm push to work towards progress.”

At the municipal school in FE Block, Sukanya and Indraneel Saha arrived at 7am, waited till 8.20 for the malfunctioning EVM to be repaired, and left, frustrated. They could have stayed away, but they chose to return in a few hours.

Rayan Karmakar of AL Block had to wait 90 minutes to become the first voter at CK-CL community hall. “I knew voting was to begin at 7am but I queued up at 6 to be the first one. Alas, there was some technical fault and voting began 25 minutes late,” said Karmakar. “This was my second vote and I didn’t face such harassment the last time. It was frustrating and I’d have left but then I recalled how much trouble I went through during the SIR process and the hearing, and felt I would only get closure if I cast my vote.”

Rain or shine

After the early morning rush, it started raining from about 9.30am, but even then, the crowds kept trickling in.

Asmi Bhattacharya of AC Block New Town flew over from Bangalore and braved the rain at Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam Government College. “This is an important election,” she said.

Kalyani and Kalyan Kumar Mallik of CK Block were forced to share a single umbrella, “but it’s not raining hard. My voting process was fast but my wife’s took an hour. Whatever the obstacles, we knew we had to vote,” he said.

“It rains several months a year but we get to vote only once in five years,” reasoned Abhishek Paul of FD Block, holding up his umbrella. “I often have to travel for work but when the dates for the election got announced, I altered my plans to ensure I’d be here.”

Additional reporting by Sudeshna Banerjee