People laze around as City is soaked in holiday mood

Holiday mood gripped Bangalore on Thursday as citizens voted in the Lok Sabha elections. Commercial establishments and shopping malls either didn’t open or wore a deserted look until afternoon.

Traffic was thinner on roads and the city centre was devoid of its usual hustle and bustle. 

With the polling day falling just before the extended weekend (April 18 is Good Friday), many citizens chose to laze around on Thursday. Overall, the City was pleasantly peaceful except for a few untoward incidents on the outskirts. 

While voters like Varsha, a techie who works in Electronics City, exercised their franchise in the morning to relax and enjoy the rest of the day, scores of others didn’t venture out until late afternoon so as to escape the heat. They trickled into polling booths only after weather improved after lunch and the sky became cloudy. 

Several shopping malls opened late than usual to enable their staff to vote in the morning. Bangalore Central, a shopping mall near Mayo Hall, opened around 12:30 pm. Staff at Garuda Mall were given two hours to vote, according to Sridhar, a manager at Inox Cinemas. 

Commuting problems 

Commuting problems continued for the second day as the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) plied fewer buses, anticipating the absence of the office crowd. Commuters had to wait for half an hour for a bus on the Brigade Road-Electronics City route on which plenty of G-3 buses run otherwise. Similarly, passengers had to wait for 15-20 minutes, against the two minutes on a normal day, for a bus between Majestic and Kadugodi. 

Purvi, who commutes frequently from Koramangala to Brigade Road, had to wait for more than 30 minutes for the G-3 bus. “Normally, there are plenty of buses on this route, but it was difficult to find one today. But it was pleasant to see empty roads,” she added.