1957 polls saw voter worshipping ballot box, nominee filing paper as Christ
NEW DELHI: In the second Lok Sabha polls, a voter in erstwhile Madras had refused to exercise his franchise in favour of any person except the then chief election commissioner Sukumar Sen, saying various parties in the fray had been harassing him with their election propaganda.
Sen, the first CEC, had led the Election Commission of India (ECI) team in successfully conducting the maiden general elections after Independence in 1951-52 and the massive democratic exercise in 1957. According to an official report on the second general elections of 1957, some unusual incidents took place on polling days which went on to add an element of humour to an otherwise prosaic and serious proceeding.
According to the report on the 1957 elections by the Commission, colourful incidents had come to light from different parts of the country, from a voter in a backward district regarding a ballot box almost as an “object of veneration” to wild animals visiting some polling stations, making the overall electorate exercise anything but drab.
In another quirky incident during the 1957 polls, a candidate had filed his nomination paper in the New Delhi parliamentary constituency, describing himself therein by the name of “Lord Jesus Christ”. “He failed to deposit any security, however. The nomination paper was naturally rejected by the returning officer at the time of scrutiny,” the report said. An excerpt from this report, listing some of these interesting incidents, has been displayed in a panel at a poll museum in Delhi. “It would be appreciated, however, that such incidents are by no means typical and occur only once out of a million cases or so,” the report said.
One incident pertained to a voter in Madras who wanted to exercise his franchise only in favour of Sen, the then CEC who was conducting the polls.
“The voter is said to have remarked, ‘I want to vote for Shri Sukumar Sen only and not for the candidate of any of the parties. All these parties have been harassing me with their election propaganda for over a month’,” it said.
The official report on the second Lok Sabha polls also mentioned that a
“superstitious voter in a backward district apparently regarded the ballot boxes almost as objects of veneration and was found offering prayers before them before casting his vote”. Besides, petals of flowers dusted with vermilion were left upon a few ballot boxes which indicated that some voters had regarded the ballot boxes as objects of worship, it said.
Among other unusual incidents, it has chronicled how some ballot boxes opened during the counting process, were found to contain diverse objects besides ballot papers, such as “chits wishing success to particular candidates or containing abusive language addressed to them” or photographs including a miniature photograph of a Hollywood star or coins, currency notes.