‘Oldest’ booth readies for election duty again

GUWAHATI: Of the 1,088 poll booths in Kamrup (Metro) district, under which Guwahati falls, ascertaining which is the oldest is a difficult task. However, chroniclers of the city think they have an answer.
Locals point out that the Latasil Lower Primary (LP) School has been serving as a polling booth since 1946 when an interim election was held.
"It's difficult to say which is the oldest polling station in the city as historical evidence is difficult to find.I think the Latasil LP School could be the oldest. The school was established in 1849. It has been serving as a polling booth since Independence," said Kumudeshwar Hazarika, one of the few remaining chroniclers of the city.
The school is set to do its duty again on Monday. "The Latasil LP school has been serving as a poll booth during elections for a long time now," said Jiten Sarma, headmaster of the school which counts Lakhyadhar Choudhury and Mamoni Raisom Goswami among its students.
Octogenarian Dhiren Baruah, chairman of Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority and a resident of Ambari who also did his primary schooling from Latasil LP School, said he, too, thought it was the oldest polling booth in the city.
"I studied here and cast my first vote here. The school is extremely significant historically," Baruah added.
The Sonaram Higher Secondary School, established in 1894, has also been doing poll duty since Independence. Established in 1870, Machkhowa Majaliga Bidyalaya is another old polling station of the city. Despite its crumbling structure and lack of infrastructure, it's ready for the second phase of polls on Monday. The school is located in the Gauhati West assembly constituency and serves as one of the many booths for over two lakh voters in the constituency.
"It's hard to tell for how long the school has been serving as a poll booth. I was not even born back then," said principal Kanaklata Devi.
Other old schools like Cotton Collegiate Government Higher Secondary School, Panbazar Girls' High School and Kamrup Academy and Bengali High School, dating back to the mid-1800s and 1900s, have served as poll booths for decades.