A 95-year-old widow from Bihar’s Banka district, who was found lying unconscious on a pavement in Howrah is being reunited with her family and is set to exercise her franchise in the Lok Sabha elections next week. The woman, who somehow landed up in Howrah after travelling from Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus in a train, was found lying severely dehydrated and unconscious on a roadside pavement. She was rescued by Swapan Maity, a sub-inspector of Golabari police station in Howrah yesterday afternoon.

Golabari has been baking in the three days as the mercury shuttled between 38 and 41 degrees Celsius with intervals of cloud and sunshine and an average of 23 per cent humidity, slower wind flow causing extreme inconvenience to children and the elderly citizens. Mr Maity said: “While patrolling, we found the woman beside the road. She’s not a destitute and had cash in her bag. We shifted her immediately to the Howrah state hospital.” Sajmu Nisha Sioman, the elderly woman, was diagnosed with severe dehydration due to the immense heat.

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She was administered intravenous fluids till she recovered. Hailing from Sultanpur in Amarpur area in Banka district of Bihar, Ms Sioman had left her grandson’s place in Mumbai on last 4 April intending to return to Sultanpur before the polling date of 26 April. According to her: “Hamara Muhalla me ye aakhri vote hai (this is the last polling in our locality)” She said: “After 70 years, the polling booth of our locality where I’ve been casting my vote since inception is going to be shifted now.

So I felt I should be there to exercise my final franchise at the booth.” Ms Sioman’s grandson, Mohammed Jahid Raja, who is now on his way to Golabari from Mumbai, said: “We’d been to Victoria Terminus Railway Station to see her off but she’d gone missing in the overcrowded platforms somehow.” After she sought the Howrah police’s help to return home in time to vote, the Howrah Police Commissionerate sought assistance from the Bengal Radio Club – an organisation of amateur radio enthusiasts.

According to Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary of the Radio Club: “Our Banka counterpart identified the family members of the woman and within hours he uploaded the photo of her EPIC, which helped in identifying her. Her grandso is arriving shortly to accompany her back to Banka before the scgeduled polling date there.”