Badlega India
It was a moment that 9,776 newly registered voters would never forget from the enclaves in Cooch Behar district of West Bengal. They made history by exercising their franchise for the first time since Independence.
There was 103-year-old Mohammed Asgar Ali among many other beaming faces, the oldest of all to cast his vote for the first time in the sixth and final phase of the West Bengal elections on Thursday.
At 103 years, Bengal’s Asghar Ali may be India’s oldest first-time voter https://t.co/avuElxvmyBpic.twitter.com/BJFEc7mJsY
— Hindustan Times (@htTweets) May 5, 2016
To make the experience even more special, The Election Commission had rolled out a red carpet for these voters and even provided a special vehicle for Ali.
Joynal Abedin, Ali’s grandson, told NewsX, “I feel proud that I am voting with my grandfather and father. We have been waiting in anticipation for a long time for this day.”
Ali hails from Madhya and Uttar Mashaldanga (now in the Dinhata assembly seat), a former Bangladeshi enclave until August 1, 2015 when the historic Land Boundary Agreement was implemented between India and Bangladesh.
A total of 15,786 people from former Bangladeshi enclaves in India and Indian enclaves in Bangladesh became Indian citizens last year when India and Bangladesh had swapped territories. Of them, 9, 776 were registered as voters and had got their EPIC (Electoral Photo Identity Card) in April.
These first-time voters cast ballots at 41 polling stations spread across four assembly constituencies of Dinhata, Sitalkuchi, Mekhligunj and Sitai in north Bengal’s Cooch Behar. In a virtual no-man’s land ever since India became independent in 1947, the excitement was appreciable among the voters.
