Will vote till I die, says Delhi’s oldest elector
NEW DELHI: Though frail and hunched, Kalitara Mandal, a 110year-old resident of south Delhi’s Chittaranjan Park, has a strong resolve, especially when it comes to exercising her franchise. Mandal, who hails from Barishal (now in south-central Bangladesh), said she remembered voting in pre-independence India and, more recently, in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
“I will vote till I die. I had first voted before the Partition while I still lived in Barishal,” said Mandal, who is the oldest among the 150 centenarians registered with the Delhi’s chief electoral officer.
In last year’s general election, Mandal’s grandson drove her to the polling station, from where she walked inside to cast her vote. But this year, her family has registered for a postal ballot.
Till now meant for voters in the armed forces, the postal ballot service— in an initiative by the state election office for the first time in Delhi—has been extended to voters above the age of 80 years and for persons with disabilities.
Asked if she remembered whom she voted for before the Partition, Mandal said she did not, but she recalled voting for former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi after independence.
“After the Partition, we lived in a refugee camp for a long time. We were then given a place in Chhattisgarh and we moved there. I remember the hand (Congress’ party symbol) party coming to the doorsteps of the people who had just moved,” she said.