On Monday, Pune residents used their right to vote in the 2018 Lok Sabha elections. Meanwhile, retailers gave up a lot of freebies to voters, such as free tea and ice cream discounts. The goal of this was to increase the nearly 50% voter turnout that was recorded in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019.
The owners of the store claim that providing free food encourages people to use their right to vote. The Grahak Peth grocery stores in front of SP College provided complimentary tea and cream rolls to every voter who came to cast a ballot in an effort to raise the percentage of voters in the Pune Lok Sabha constituency. Only those who cast their ballots early were allowed to have tea and cream rolls from 7 to 10 a.m.
The head of Grahak Peth, Suryakant Pathak, stated to The Free Press Journal, “We provided free tea and cream rolls to every early voter who showed out to cast their ballot. Chandrakant Patil, the Minister of Higher and Technical Education for Maharashtra, also showed up to vote. The intention was to encourage voters to cast ballots.”
On the day of voting, 450 businesses in the city provided lunch to voters at a discounted price.
In an effort to encourage 100% of members to cast ballots, a housing society in Lohegaon decided to give each flat owner who does so a discount on the society’s maintenance cost.
“To encourage first-time voters, the association launched a scheme under which those who vote will get an additional fuel worth ₹50 on the minimum purchase of one litre of fuel,” stated Dhruv Ruparel, president of the Petrol Dealers’ organization, Pune. The program is good through May 20.”
In a similar vein, the creator of Shirish Traders provided ice cream in a cup for half price. On Prabhat Road, next to Kamala Nehru Park, the event was taking place. The shop’s proprietor, Shirish Bodhani, stated, “This ice cream costs ₹60. Nevertheless, it was only available for ₹30, or half price, on election day.”
