Elections the EC way: Reaching the very last voter in India’s remotest corner
The idea, said Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, is that ‘no voter is left behind’
NEW DELHI: Traversing jungles and snow-capped mountains, wading through rivers with life jackets on, trekking for miles and carrying EVMS on horseback and on elephants, Election Commission teams reach the remotest corner and the most inaccessible spot to ensure no voter is left out.
Fanning out across the length and breadth of India, right from the world’s highest polling station at 15,000 feet above sea level to a booth in a shipping container in an islet, the EC could well be moving mountains to conduct elections in the world’s largest democracy.
The idea, said Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, is that “no voter is left behind”. “We will walk the extra mile so that voters don’t have to. We will go to the snowed mountains and jungles. We will go through horses and helicopters and on the bridges and even ride on elephants and mules just to ensure everyone is able to vote,” Kumar said earlier
this month while announcing the schedule for the 18th Lok Sabha polls this month.
In the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, 94 special polling booths will be set up for internally displaced persons of Manipur to vote at relief camps. Ethnic clashes between the Meitei and tribal Kuki communities in Manipur since May last year have resulted in the loss of over 200 lives.
Over 50,000 displaced people will be eligible to vote at these booths which will be set up in or near relief camps.
According to Election Commission records, Tashigang in Himachal Pradesh’s Lahaul and Spiti has the world’s highest polling station located at 15,256 feet above sea level.
“All 52 electors of the village turned up to exercise their franchise on November 12, 2022, notwithstanding the freezing cold. Himachal Pradesh had 65 polling stations at the height between 10,000 to 12,000 feet and 20 polling stations above the height of 12,000 feet from sea level,” said an EC report.
In Meghalaya, polling per
sonnel had to wear life jackets and were accompanied by divers to a riverine polling station in Kamsing village in West Jaintia Hills district.
“The village, which survives on betel nut farming and solar electricity, has the farthest and non-motorable polling station of Meghalaya. Situated 69 km from district headquarters in Jowai, and 44 km from subdistrict headquarter (tehsildar’s office) Amlarem, the village is approachable only by small countrymade boats,” reads an anecdote shared by EC.“It takes an hour-long cruise to reach the village along the Indo-Bangladesh border. A polling station was set up in the village for its 35 voters, 20 male and 15 female, drawn from 23 families that inhabit the village. The polling personnel had to wear life jackets, and were accompanied by a few divers,” it added.
According to “Leap of Faith” a book on polls published by the EC, a special polling station has been set up in Banej, tucked deep in the forests of Gir since 2007 for just one voter – Mahant Haridasji Udaseen.
He is a priest at a Shiva temple located in the area.
A booth is set up in the forest office near the temple. A dedicated polling team is appointed to set up the booth and make necessary arrangements for the lone voter to exercise his right. “The Baneshwar Mahadev Temple is located deep inside Gir forest, the last surviving natural habitat of Asiatic lions.