I voted at the Kapol Vidyanidhi School polling centre in Mahavir Nagar, Kandivali. A video went viral on social media about the long queue, indicating there was great enthusiasm for voting. What I saw in person was, in fact, complete chaos and mismanagement.
The school is a posh, not your municipal or government one that lacks facilities. The polling staff really couldn't have blamed it on lack of amenities. For ferrying senior citizens and physically challenged persons, there were lifts and wheelchairs. Fans inside the booths were working and ventilation there was good too. It was, however, reaching the correct booth to vote, which was a challenge.
There was a large entrance and exit for the school, but there were no indications where the voters should queue up. As a result, the queue comprised voters from all the booths at the centre. As we went towards the centre, our neighbour said that our booth was empty and we should go straight to the booth instead of waiting in the queue. But when we approached a policeman, he asked us to wait. We witnessed a slanging match between a middle-aged lady and the policeman at the exit gate who was pushing her out even as she kept shouting 'I want my daughter back'. As we waited in the queue, others commented about why she was getting so angry and she must be patient with the polling staff.
We saw people sneaking in from the exit gate which was shut. There were others who went inside the booth straight even as we waited in the serpentine queue in the hot sun.
The help counter inside the courtyard was mobbed by voters and there were volunteers, not wearing any badge, directing crowd randomly. We followed one such volunteer's instructions and queued up for our booth on the first floor. There were at least six different queues and no one was guiding voters to their respective queues and booths. We were told that our booth had less number of voters and we were asked to go up in a separate queue. As a result, there were two queues on a narrow staircase. Once we got closer to the booth, we realised why the crowd outside was getting bigger. Doors to the lifts that were ferrying senior citizens and physically challenged people were blocked by queue and every time someone came up, there was a near stampede-like situation.
I had kept my cellphone inside my car. A hassled polling staff personnel came out shouting, telling people to switch off their mobiles. But to my astonishment, a woman inside the booth was calmly showing her voter ID picture to the polling staff personnel on her mobile. The woman even called her relative to say she was being directed to another booth after waiting for so long. I voted along with my family and again, we had no idea of the exit route. There was chaos around us. It didn't seem anyone was in charge, the staff calmly sat inside, helping people cast their votes even as the queues swelled. As we were getting out, a man ahead of me called his neighbour and told him — brace yourself to wait for at least three hours. It was 1 pm. He had come at 9 am.
VOTE-A-MESS
- Help counter inside the courtyard was mobbed by voters
- Volunteers were not wearing any badge and directing crowd randomly
- Many voters waited in a 1-km long queue in the scorching sun for 1-3 hours
