India General Elections 2024: Blistering heat, long queues bedevil city voters

While the overall pace of voting on Monday was somewhat glacial the wide range of citizens who bothered to show up at polling booths across the city to exercise their franchise told midday they were voting for change Affordable educational institutions and employment opportunities for homemakers were some of the desires of those who cast their votesMumbai SouthWhen it comes to voting the residents of tony south Mumbai always lag behind their counterparts in the rest of the city On Monday when long queues could be seen at almost every polling station in the city those in Colaba Nariman Point and Cuff Parade wore a relatively bare look while Malabar Hill saw a modest turnout It was another story with Tardeo Dongri and Badhwar Park in ColabaPolling stations at Dongri Nal Bazaarmdashcongested areas of South Mumbaimdashwere flooded with voters but these centres didnrsquot witness the kind of chaos seen in other parts of the cityRifta Patel 84 who came to Tardeo RTO to vote Madhuri Thakur who had come to Sandhurst Road from Vashi to exercise her franchiseAt a polling station in a Dongri public school some voters took almost an hour to cast their votes Madhuri Thakur who had come to Sandhurst Road from Vashi to exercise her franchise told midday that it took her more than an hour to complete the procedure As her home is in Dongri she and her husband visit the island city every electionJunaid Mistry who had come to Dongri with his family to vote said it didnrsquot take more than 15 minutes and as they already knew about the mobile ban they didnrsquot bring any gadgetsThe polling stations at the Tardeo RTO situated in the midst of a sizeable slum population Badhwar Park in Colaba where the fishing community is in the majority witnessed a fair amount of crowding In light of the heat and humidity many opted to vote early in the morningA police constable on the RTO premises said the queues had been there since polling began and people were coming out in good numbers Rifta Patel 84 came with her son to cast her vote Talking about her experience she praised the police and Election Commission workers ldquoIt feels good when we vote The police were taking care of everyone well and with smiling facesrdquo said PatelRaju Pardeshi a Malabar Hill resident said compared to earlier the numbers are higher This may be due to visits from politicians and rallies in this areaSouth CentralVoters had to endure the summer heat at a few polling centres in this constituency where Mahayuti candidate Rahul Shewale is up against Shiv Sena UBTrsquos Anil Desai as the voting process unfolded at a slow pace Many citizens said pandals should have been set up more at locations where the voters had to stand in queues As some names were missing from polling lists chaos was also seen in a few placesThe six Assembly segments that fall under this Lok Sabha constituency are Sion Koliwada Dharavi Wadala Anushakti Nagar Chembur and MahimDharavi resident Vinod Manoj Nikam who had come to the polling station set up at the District Sport Club was upset about the fact that his name was on the voting list but his wifersquos wasnrsquot ldquoMy name is in the list but my wifersquos name is missing Last time we voted together but now only I was able to do so We hope this problem isnrsquot repeated during the upcoming electionsrdquo he saidNorth CentralThe Mumbai North Central Lok Sabha constituency is seeing a fight between Mahayuti candidate Ujjwal Nikam and Varsha Gaikwad of the Congress BJP leader Mahesh Parker told midday that at many places in the seat voters had to stand in long queues as the voting process was slowldquoIn ward 94 at booth nos 95 and 93 in Khar East the people had to stand in long lines to cast their votes The situation was similar in some places in Santacruz Some voters even complained that despite voting for so many years their names were missing from the voter list I think some ECI officials who were assigned this duty were not properly trained which resulted in the delay in the voting process and people having to stand in linesrdquoAs per the Election Commissionrsquos instructions voters who were standing in the queue were allowed to vote beyond 6 pm Polling stations continued functioning until all the voters standing in the queue by this time were done votingNorth EastVoters in Shivaji Nagar were concerned about whether their votes would count due to issues with EVMs At one polling booth the machine would not make a beeping sound while at another the machine went off for an hour or soAt polling booth no 63 PRO Suhas Rane told midday that the machine went off between 11 am and 1230 pm ldquoThere was some technical issue and it was fixed at the earliestrdquo he said However by 130 pm this booth had registered approximately 176 votes while booth no 62 which was right next to it had registered 319 votesIn all the constituency which apart from Mankhurd Shivaji Nagar includes Bhandup West Ghatkopar East Ghatkopar West Mulund and Vikhroli Assembly seats had a turnout of 3915 per cent by 3 pm Shivaji Nagar recorded the lowest turnout at 3350 per cent while the highest was recorded in Mulund with a 458 per cent turnoutThe battle in this constituency is between BJPrsquos Mihir Kotecha and Shiv Sena UBTrsquos Sanjay Dina Patil This is Patilrsquos fourth parliamentary election from the same constituency He was sent to Parliament in 2009 on an NCP ticket but has faced defeats in 2014 and 2019 BJP has fielded Kotecha instead of incumbent MP Manoj KotakWhat voters wantKushnoor Bano 32 Shivaji Nagar residentldquoThere are a lot of issues here People live in terrible conditions and they want a better life but there is very little supportrdquo Bano is a homemaker and said the perception about those like her is that they do not want to work ldquoWe want to participate and bring home money to support our families I want the next government to come up with a scheme where homemakers can also do some jobsrdquoAslam Sheikh 40differentlyabled voterldquoWhatever the government comes next needs to think of making the lives of those like me a little easier in whatever way they canrdquoIn GhatkoparA number of senior citizens had come out to vote in Ghatkopar East and West despite the provision to cast their vote onlineHasmukh Parekh 80 and his wife Meena 75ldquoWhat is the fun in casting votes online Here we can come and look around We want a stable and strong governmentrdquoAshok Tupekar 31 A polio patientldquoI do not have any expectations from the next government except for one I want a better automatic cycle with four wheels The one I use now pains my handsrdquoHarsha Nakrani 46 Ghatkopar residentldquoMy primary issue here is sanitation Whatever candidate comes here needs to make proper waste disposal a priority especially in the rainsrdquo