Elderly voters brave Vijayawada’s blistering heat to cast ballots

Sheikh Aktaruneesa and B. Sarojini taking rest after casting their votes, at a polling station at the Montessori College of Physiotherapy in Vijayawada on Sunday.

The sun blazed on Vijayawada on the polling day on Sunday, right from 9 a.m. Nonetheless, it did not deter elderly persons from exercising their voting right in the Second Ordinary Elections to Urban Local Bodies.

Many elderly persons, assisted by NSS volunteers and family members, reached the polling stations at Andhra Loyola College in the city to cast their vote.

At the polling station at the Montessori College Of Physiotherapy near Labbipeta, a 80-year-old woman, named B. Sarojini, walked alone in the sizzling heat from her house, located around 500 metres away, to the polling booth. Her children have deserted her, she says, and lives on ₹4,000 per month old-age pension.

Another 68-year-old woman, Sheik Aktarunneesa, who looked weaker than Sarojini, came by a share auto from One Town, around 5 km away, to cast her vote. She lost her elder son in an accident, and younger in a scuffle, and is deserted by her daughter-in-law and three daughters.

She came from Hyderabad where she stays with her fourth and widowed younger daughter. The pension is the only source of income for her, from which she supports her daughter as well, she says.