Democratic fervour at its zenith in city

Hyderabad: As the day of elections, December 7, dawned on Telangana, its people rose to perform a different kind of exercise: to select their choice of government; to choose the candidate who will redress their grievances in their locality or constituency; and, to display Indian democracy to the world by exercising their franchise.

As the State government and the Election Commission had declared the polling day as a public holiday, all roads led to polling booths from morning 5 am, by 8 am rush was quite visible at the polling booths. At polling stations in Malkajgiri, it was a hectic day for the booth level officers and political party polling agents as heavy rush of people checked their names and polling stations.

Chatterati at tea stalls

The tea stalls turned places for amiable political discussions. At a tea stall at Old PS in Neredmet, inadvertently, Subhash got an opportunity to meet their friends after a long time for a brief period of tea session. They expressed greetings to each other and held discussions on politics and others.

One family different polling stations

Many families were surprised to find different polling stations for each family member. Unable to find answers from anyone, Shashidhar was irked at the anomaly. He came shouting at the polling agents after casting his vote at 10 am at Vinayak Nagar in Malkajgiri mandal, polling station. He said he would lodge a complaint on the issue, saying how come a family residing in one house can get different polling stations for voting. He first took his daughter to a polling station on a bike and after dropping her at home, he had to make another round for voting at another polling booth, he said.

Shortage of bus services

With RTC diverting a large number of buses for election duty, the commuters had a tough time waiting for the buses. Bus travellers at Secunderabad bus station said their were waiting for hours for the bus to LV Prasad Eye Hospital. There were no Setwin buses also. Suhasini and her two children waited for more than one hour for Kondapur bus. Also, most of the auto drivers and online cab service providers remained off road.