 "Mumbai sees polling day bustle")
Mumbai never sleeps, except perhaps on election day. However, this polling day witnessed more citizens casting votes, allowing turnout figures to reach 53 per cent - a heartening improvement over 2009's 41.4 per cent.
Efforts by local establishments to encourage voter participation seem to have helped. At least 35 restaurants, spas and salons offered appealing discounts to those with "inked fingers."
Banks sent reminder messages at regular intervals to coax customers into voting. Across the city, individuals and citizen groups, too, had been chipping in enthusiastically. Sachin Tendulkar voted early on his 41st birthday and tweeted it was a wonderful way to start his day.
The Khar residents' association distributed pamphlets and organised cars to carry voters to and fro. It also set up a call centre to deal with queries and supplied wheelchairs wherever needed.
In first-time voter Rahul Bagthalia's college at Ghatkopar, the students' committee had held a meeting to discuss the importance of voting. Kurla-based advocate Javeed Hussein, a veteran voter, said enthusiasm and awareness among young voters, including his son, had risen.
Hussein had also issued standing instructions to employees at his Mazagaon office: "It is not any old holiday. Go out and vote." Others such as 26-year-old Vakola resident Megha Kuchu expressed surprise at the initial low figure of 35 per cent being reported by 3 pm. "But this time seems different. There are long queues with people of all ages," she pointed out.
Her account also matched the scene at the Majhgav Night School in Mulund, part of the Mumbai North East constituency. To counter the 9 am sun, voters had walked in briskly, armed with sunglasses and bottles of chilled water. Unlike the relative lull during the last election, people here thronged the Election Commission helpdesk to find their names in the roll almost as though, according to one voter's description, "they were giving away free food there."
Crowds thinned at most locations around noon but picked up after lunch hour.
For those who had received voting slips, the process thereafter was smooth. Senior citizens were led promptly to a separate queue. At some polling stations such as the Worli Naka Hindi Municipal School, there were palanquins to take ailing elderly voters up to the first-floor voting rooms.
However, the turnout could have been better if enthusiasm had been uniform and if some names had not been left out of voting lists. Several city-based cricketers were away for the Indian Premier League games in Dubai. Of the celebrities who did turn up to cast their vote, some such as Marathi actors Atul Kulkarni and Bharat Dabholkar were disappointed after finding their names were missing from the roll. Local businesswoman Darshana Patel rushed out of a Worli polling station to head to the next one in pursuit of a list with her name. She had even visited a centre near her former residence in Dadar but her name was not there either.
Efforts by local establishments to encourage voter participation seem to have helped. At least 35 restaurants, spas and salons offered appealing discounts to those with "inked fingers."
Banks sent reminder messages at regular intervals to coax customers into voting. Across the city, individuals and citizen groups, too, had been chipping in enthusiastically. Sachin Tendulkar voted early on his 41st birthday and tweeted it was a wonderful way to start his day.
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In Kandivali's Nishita Society, Dr Dilip Raichura offered free consultation and treatment, in addition to arranging a breakfast spread in order to free up housewives for voting.
The Khar residents' association distributed pamphlets and organised cars to carry voters to and fro. It also set up a call centre to deal with queries and supplied wheelchairs wherever needed.
In first-time voter Rahul Bagthalia's college at Ghatkopar, the students' committee had held a meeting to discuss the importance of voting. Kurla-based advocate Javeed Hussein, a veteran voter, said enthusiasm and awareness among young voters, including his son, had risen.
Hussein had also issued standing instructions to employees at his Mazagaon office: "It is not any old holiday. Go out and vote." Others such as 26-year-old Vakola resident Megha Kuchu expressed surprise at the initial low figure of 35 per cent being reported by 3 pm. "But this time seems different. There are long queues with people of all ages," she pointed out.
Her account also matched the scene at the Majhgav Night School in Mulund, part of the Mumbai North East constituency. To counter the 9 am sun, voters had walked in briskly, armed with sunglasses and bottles of chilled water. Unlike the relative lull during the last election, people here thronged the Election Commission helpdesk to find their names in the roll almost as though, according to one voter's description, "they were giving away free food there."
Crowds thinned at most locations around noon but picked up after lunch hour.
For those who had received voting slips, the process thereafter was smooth. Senior citizens were led promptly to a separate queue. At some polling stations such as the Worli Naka Hindi Municipal School, there were palanquins to take ailing elderly voters up to the first-floor voting rooms.
However, the turnout could have been better if enthusiasm had been uniform and if some names had not been left out of voting lists. Several city-based cricketers were away for the Indian Premier League games in Dubai. Of the celebrities who did turn up to cast their vote, some such as Marathi actors Atul Kulkarni and Bharat Dabholkar were disappointed after finding their names were missing from the roll. Local businesswoman Darshana Patel rushed out of a Worli polling station to head to the next one in pursuit of a list with her name. She had even visited a centre near her former residence in Dadar but her name was not there either.