As Mumbaikars stepped out to vote in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission’s ‘No Mobile Phones’ diktat sent many in a tizzy. While some people carried it inside the polling booth, on the other hand, some were asked to keep it out.
According to Mid-Day, with directions about phones not being allowed in the 100 meters vicinity of polling stations, the Election Commission did not make any provisions for safekeeping of phones. The EC’s No Mobile Phones’ diktat led to confusion amongst voters across the city. The EC had issued such orders after some voters were found clicking pictures while voting during the last elections.
Most of the polling stations had police officials preventing voters from carrying their phones inside. But there was no mechanism in place to check the bags through which the voters carried their mobile phones inside the polling booth, “thus making it difficult to ascertain if they were carrying a phone or not,” an official told the leading daily. Dhanraji Yadav, who was at the Manohar Joshi Mahavidyalaya in Dharavi along with her family, told the Mid-Day, “I waited with all the phones while my family voted. But while I was waiting there, the same police officials allowed other people to carry them by switching them off.”
