Indelible thrill: Young first-time voters queue up to make their mark

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Panaji: Tuesday, the day of the third phase of the parliamentary polls, dawned bright and sultry. But a little sweat proved no deterrence to Goa’s enthusiastic first-time voters. They poured out of their homes right from the early hours looking to beat the heat and the queues, and patiently awaited their turn to experience — in their words — “what it meant to be a part of the governance process”.
Standing in line in Taleigao was young Aumkar Shah, proudly sporting a TOI T-shirt that announced him as a first-time voter.Shah’s excitement is palpable and when we point to his T-shirt, which was part of TOI’s first-time voter campaign in Delhi, he grins and says it is his way of celebrating the special moment.
The lad’s commitment towards casting his vote is also evident from the fact that the first year MBBS student at AIIMS, New Delhi, had specially taken half-a-day off from college to be in his hometown to exercise his franchise.
Shah says the TOI campaign served as an inspiration for first-time voters who had to travel to cast their votes, but in the same breath adds that he has always looked forward to having his say in changing the governance policy and ensuring that those at the helm will do more than forward promises.
A little later in the day, casually dressed in shorts and a black T-shirt, with a cap as his only protection against the sun, Rahul Rajesh, a first-year student of the International Institute of Sports Management in Mumbai, kept his date with the democratic process.
“I took time off from college twice, earlier to get my voter ID card ready and now, to vote,” says Rajesh, whose takeaway from the experience is how rapidly it ends. “The build-up to this moment was so huge and then it was over. My vote was cast, it was all so quick,” he says with a trace of the wonderment still lingering. He adds as an afterthought, like he did not think this was possible with government machinery — “everybody was so helpful”.
But then he adds with all the suave of a youth in his late teens, “But I knew what to expect…my dad had apprised me (about the EVM and VVPAT).”
Rajesh is sweaty. He has been in the queue for 40 minutes, but he brushes aside the wait in the heat as “the least one can do for the nation”, and hopes his choice will prove beneficial for his community and the nation too.
Closer home, local students also threw their weight behind the electoral process. Eighteen-year-old Kareena Shirodkar from V M Salgaoncar Law College, who made her debut as a voter at a polling booth in Miramar, is just as thrilled and fervently hoping her choice of candidate makes it to the victory line. “I am really looking forward to seeing more development in the state. For me, it’s not about who will be at the Centre, but who will ensure better things for us here in Goa,” Shirodkar says as she remembers that she has another poll to look forward to — the Panaji byelection — where she can have her say yet again, this time for the improvement of her city, to give it a fighting chance for improved roads, cleanliness and drainage systems.
The enthusiasm among most of the youngsters revolves around the power of having their tiny say in the greater scheme of things. There is nothing wide-eyed about them when they relive their experiences. The disciplined manner in which polling officers announce the part numbers, the EVMs and the VVPATs are but the means to an end for them.
“That is the electoral process, there is nothing more to it,” says first-time voter from Bicholim, Siddhant Shetye, who, like Shah, Rajesh and Shirodkar, reiterates that it is the exercising of the right of franchise in their county that is their high.
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Heading: For this 42-yr debutant, age is just a number
(Dropcap) Youth in their late teens and early 20s were not the only ones to vote for the first time on Tuesday. Osbert Anthony D’Souza, 42, from Caranzalem was one among them when he finally got the opportunity to be part of the world’s largest democratic process. “I was brought up and have lived in Kuwait. The opportunity to be in Goa when elections were happening never came my way,” D’Souza says, adding that he feels good after finally casting his vote. “I felt like I did something for my country.”
He, however rues that it will be possible to exercise his franchise in the future only if his job permits. “We have a group of Goans that is working towards getting overseas Goans the right to vote. Hopefully, it will work out because like me, there are many who would like to vote, but are bound by work constraints.”