Seniors get to vote

"I was deprived of my constitutional right to vote during the Lok Sabha elections (in April 2009). But today I feel proud of being a good citizen by casting my vote,” Nargis Gandhi, a distant relative of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, told Mid-Day on October 14, 2009. Gandhi, who works as secretary for a reputed cardiologist at Peddar Road, was jubilant after casting her vote along with 15 other inmates of The Lotus Home, Worli, during the October 13 Assembly polls.

The residents of the Home, a center for educated women senior citizens run by the Maharashtra State Women’s Council (MSWC), were unable to vote during the Lok Sabha elections because the electoral authorities would not consider the Home to be their permanent residential address. Mid-Day had written about this problem in its edition of May 1, and the senior citizens thanked that tabloid as well as the president of MSWC and superintendent of The Lotus Home for ensuring that they were able to vote this time, the report states. "This was a collective effort and even the state election administration extended full cooperation in ensuring that the senior citizens got their voting cards,” the MSWC president told Mid-Day.