Brides, grooms, centenarians & supercentenarians steals the show at poll booths

Kolhapur: Grooms, brides, newlyweds, people with disabilities, centenarians, and even some supercentenarians (those above 110 years old) showed up for the zilla parishad and panchayat samiti voting on Thursday.Ruturaj Thorat, a groom, arrived on a horse immediately after his haldi ceremony to cast his vote at the Bhairavnathnagar polling booth of Karad tehsil. Rutuja Kshirsagar, a bride, arrived at the Sonvadi polling booth in Phaltan tehsil to cast her vote, after which she left for the wedding hall to get married. Anand Jayram More from Pangaon in Barshi tehsil of Solapur district took his ‘Barat (Vatat)' to the polling station. More, a trainee block development officer (BDO), said he decided to join public service to serve the people, and as an officer-to-be, he wanted to give a message to the voters that everyone should first vote and do other tasks thereafter.In Kagal tehsil of Kolhapur district, a newlywed couple, Dhanashri and Shravan Patil, arrived at the polling booth to cast their vote after taking "saat phere".Housabai Margaje (115), from Navja in Patan tehsil of Satara, also cast her vote. Her relatives said she has never missed casting her vote. She showed her Aadhaar card with the birth year mentioned as 1911.Similarly, Sambhaji Ganpatil (112) cast his vote at Marwade in Mangalwedha tehsil of Solapur district. At the insistence of the poll staffers, he proudly stood at the selfie point, which had a message for voters to feel proud to vote. Housabai Gholap (104), from Sawate village of Shahuwadi tehsil of Kolhapur, turned up to vote, and the poll staffers stood to salute her courage. She also showed a victory sign while the poll staffers stood to get a photo with her.There were many voters in their 90s who arrived and cast their vote without any help from others. The poll workers remained sensitive in cases where elderly voters were unable to step out of their vehicles to reach the polling booth. They let representatives of such senior voters cast the ballot and took the ink bottle to them to get them inked.