When voters felt like kings and queens for a day

Experience the royal treatment at polling booths in Shivamogga, as centenarians exercise their right to vote.

The voting day is often described as a “festival of democracy”, but election officials in the Shivamogga Lok Sabha constituency, in an attempt to enthuse voters to exercise their franchise, had made arrangements to literally make them feel like kings and queens. At the booth in the zilla panchayat office in Shivamogga town, there was a selfie point with a “throne” and “crown.”

Voters posed for pictures sitting on the throne and wearing the crown, after casting their votes. The election staff wore attires resembling the staff in a palace and the polling station was decorated to look like a palace.

Many centenarians cast their vote in various places in the 14 constituencies, though they had the vote-from-home option. Among them was centenarian and former Minister Bheemanna Khandre, who voted in Bidar. His grandson Sagar Khandre is the Congress candidate in the Bidar Lok Sabha constituency, while his son Eshwar Khandre is a Minister in the Siddaramaiah-led government.

In the same constituency, 110-year-old Lakshmi Bai Mahapure cast her vote at Kaplapur village in Bhalki taluk. In January, Revenue Department officials reached her doorsteps to provide her old age pension and other benefits, of which she was deprived for not having any documents or identity card. In yet another instance, Krishnabhai Murumkhar, 103, cast her vote at Shivaji Nagar in Jamkhandi in Bagalkot district.