All hands on deck – Vandre East

9 am: Already the place is a hive of activity, with workers, policemen and voters trickling in steadily.

A surprise sight was Zishan Siddique, the Congress party candidate, taking a round and checking and interacting with the polling workers. He seems friendly enough but makes it clear that he is not going to talk.

There are plenty of others, however, at the Cardinal Gracias High School Teachers colony, who stop to chat . Some of them were among the earliest voters at 7 am, so that in a couple of hours, almost 200 out of 1,000 registered voters at the booth have cast their votes. Counting is done and announced every two hours.

Alert for anything, police at Vandre East

There is a visible presence of policemen, almost 40 at one polling station. Most have been active since last night. The policemen are actively working since last night. There are approximately 35-40 policemen at one polling station.

Uma Shankar (20), has voted twice, reaching the polling station with difficulty

The one who stood out so early was Umashankar (20). Walking with the help of a walker to reach the polling booth, this young man has already participated in two elections. With that help of a wheelchair and willing assistants, he made it to the polling booth.

Contributed journalism students by Martina Bhoya and Annet Anandraj