Election Day experience

On 30 April, 2009 it was the Election Day in Mumbai. And like every responsible and positive minded citizen, with my family for company I left home at around 12:35 pm to cast my vote. It was piping hot out. All shops remained closed during elections.

Soon after, we were close to our polling booth, where I saw army men on duty and little more closer to the booth there were a few police men. It left me pretty impressed with the security, wonder if such security is provided even in areas like UP, Bihar.

At the gate, I saw the queue of voters and got little uncomfortable with the thought of standing in that queue in the scorching sun. 45 minutes in the queue I saw and understood the following few things…

A handicapped guy was not let to vote due to lack of a photo identity. For all those who didn’t know, with the address proof you also need to have one photo identity. If you are going with your family at least one person in the family needs to have a photo identity.

Senior citizen need not stand in the queue.

Now something interesting… one young girl with her mom was so excited about voting. Showing her middle finger (that’s where they put the black ink this time…. wonder why?), she said “I am going to show this to all my friends, losers none of them went for voting”. We can definitely do with more people like her.

According to the news agencies, in Mumbai only 45% voted which I agree is not such a good figure however, I personally know minimum 7 people who submitted all the necessary documents much in advance but didn’t have their names in the voters list. And another 7 who had booked their tickets for the annual holiday 2/3 months back. In both the cases, it was not possible for the citizens to do much!!

I finally put my vote at around 1:30pm and felt ecstatic through out the day. This was not the first time I have voted but after all that our country went through and is still going through, after exercising my right… I thought I did my bit in improving the situation.

Would you be voting in the coming election?

This time like never before there is big time focus on election, after all that our country is going through at present, it’s but natural. I remember some people who said in the last election, “what is the use voting, all are the same” are actually trying to get a voter’s ID card. This on people’s front… is a very positive sign. All the recent happenings have made people realize the importance of voting for the right party.

Apart from that we have the media encouraging people to vote. Just last year jaagore.com came into existence, which already has thousands of registrations. As for me, I have always voted, unfortunately my name came in the list of voters little late; however, as soon as I had my name in the list I voted with all sincerity.

Election campaigning is going on in full form. Political Parties are getting film stars to campaign for them. This year the TV campaigning has got much more entertaining unlike in the past. I particularly liked the below Ad campaigning done by BJP.

But the question remains, how we should see to it that our voted is not wasted on the wrong person/party. I have been thinking a lot about this and why not it’s the question of my nation and directly or indirectly it affects me! Should I vote for the party campaigned by my favorite actor? Should I decide looking at the ad campaign on TV that impressed me the most? Or should I just wake up and see around, if the party ruling my area has actually contributed in its development in the last 5 years and if not should I give a chance to another party?

This is our one chance but as they say in Hindi… Sau sohnaar ki ek lohaar ki (Our one equals their hundred).

Before you vote for elections this time, besides you own wisdom and awareness, please do some research on which party really deserves your vote. Following site is the latest tool provided by Google, hope it helps;

http://www.google.co.in/intl/en/landing/loksabha2009/