DARJEELING: Six-year-old Prerna Gurung was in for a surprise as she stepped into the polling booth at Singhamari, barely 50 metres from the St Joseph's College gate, on Friday afternoon. Too young to be left behind at home, Prerna was accompanying her mother, who had gone there to vote. As the two entered the booth, four smiling "kakis (aunts)" came up to the girl and one of them, an ICDS worker, Sushma Thapa, offered her toys."You can play here while your mother votes," Sushma told Prema.
Voting-made-easy for mothers, and all women, was the special feature at the "pink booth" in Singhamari, managed by women. While the voters' queues saw more women than men, polling officials as well as central force personnel in charge of security were women, too. The booth donned a festive air, complete with pink balloons and a selfie corner. The EC has set up 54 such all-woman booths in the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency-Darjeeling five, Kalimpong 25, Kurseong seven, Matigara-Naxalbari, Phansidewa and Siliguri five each and Chopra two-the highest in the second phase of the poll in Bengal. An official pointed out it was only apt that all-woman booths were set up there, given that the number of female voters was higher than that of men in Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Kurseong and Naxalbari-Matigara.
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