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Indian elections –
made simple.... To a common man there are a lot of unknown factors about an Indian election. This article is an attempt to make the election process easily understood. Important statistics Each Lok sabha (MP) seat in India, geographically covers six Vidhan sabha (MLA) seats. Each MLA seat geographically covers six municipal corporation (Councilor) wards, in a city like Mumbai. After the de-limitation exercise carried out by ECI, each ward has roughly 40,000 voters and hence each MLA area has about 240,000 voters AND each MP area has roughly 15 lakh voters. Each booth (voting area) covers about a 1,000 voters of its surrounding area. So a MP candidate has to cover about 1,500 booths (and hence have 1,500 booth pramukhs and atleast 1,500 polling agents and their relievers, for effective coverage). One polling station (eg a government school) may physically contain 2-3 or more booths. Each booth has a unique number called EP number. So a voter can be uniquely identified as, South Mumbai Lok sabha constituency, Malabar Hill vidhan sabha, EP number x (booth number 1 to say 240), serial number y (voter number 1 to say 1,000). Reservations Certain areas have a lot of SC or ST or NT population, hence ECI nominates those areas as reserved. For eg, Dharavi vidhan sabha is reserved for SC and Palghar Lok sabha seat is reserved for ST. In municipal corporation elections (for Mumbai) 33% is reserved for women, 33% for OBC and about 2-3% for SC/ST. Rest is available for open category candidates. The reservation for OBC and women is chosen by a lottery system, every 2 electoral terms. ELECTION PROCESS We can broadly divide the election into 2 processes viz. Campaigning and Voting Day. The timetable for campaigning begins after the candidate (nominated by a party or an Independent) fills up his/ her nomination form. Then a few days are given for the candidate to withdraw the same, after which the campaigning can officially start. Elections are fought almost entirely on manpower strength (and money power to a certain extent). Each candidate typically has a team which can be classified as: CAMPAIGN TEAM Election In-charge He is the Coach of the team. As soon as the campaigning starts, the candidate is so tied up with meeting people that it is almost impossible for him/ her to put on the thinking cap. This has to be done by the Election or campaign manager. Sabha In-charge Public meetings are extremely important to make the message reach the masses. Typically there is a volunteer who handles the organization of the sabha, like stage, chairs, back-drop, invitation cards, etc! This excludes getting the people to the sabha (because most times that is more difficult than arranging the sabha). Corner meeting In-charge Street corners are effective spots, utilized by candidates to spread their message, specially in the evenings. This person can also arrange coffee meetings with NGO’s or society’s. Path yatra In-charge This is where the candidate walks or takes the “rath” to reach voters. This volunteer decides on the route and which party workers/ volunteers can be involved where. A variant of this is for BMC elections (which are held over smaller areas), the door-to-door path yatra. The rath/ jeep used for the yatra needs to be decorated with election material. Permissions In-charge For sabhas, path yatras and corner meetings, permissions are required from authorities like BMC/ Police/ traffic police. Details like location, exact time, number of participants etc have to be provided. It can be a full time job. Volunteer In-charge When local citizens or party workers want to get involved in the campaign, someone must guide them what needs to be done (so that the volunteer is not lost). Material distribution In-charge This includes pamplets and voting slips. Treasurer Handles the money reporting and Petty Cash to volunteers/ party workers Scheduler Lot of requests pour in from various NGO’s, society’s to arrange meetings with the candidate. The Scheduler takes care of the candidate’s calendar. Office In-charge One of the most important person in the team. Can also double as a scheduler. He acts as a Messenger of important information to the entire team. He also co-ordinates Pamplet printing; Voters slip printing; booth-wise sorting; Furniture of the office; vehicles (campaign and voting day) and Food for the team members. This person also handles other staff members like Typist and Peons. Reporting to election Returning Officer It is quite important the expense reports are submitted to the Returning office on regular basis, as per the schedule provided by Election Commission of India. Media In-charge News releases and events calendar have to be sent out everyday in English/ Marathi/ Hindi/ Gujarati etc. by fax. This gives the media an idea on how the candidate is moving and can give adequate coverage if the daily releases are interesting. Photographer/ Video-grapher has to be appointed, who can send out a picture daily to the media offices. A Media file of newspaper clippings can be maintained to be on the lookout for any adverse stories. The media in-charge may also take care of preparing material for printing of pamplets. VOTING DAY TEAM Booth In-charge A booth is a place where the voter actually goes into vote. This volunteer is in-charge of getting voters down to vote. This is the most important function for the voting day. Polling Agents In-charge Inside the voting booth (polling booth), each candidate can have a polling agent (list to be submitted a few days before the election day). This polling agent must verify that the EVM (Electronic voting machine) is not tampered with before voting starts. Can also verify the authenticity of the voter, by asking him/her to produce ID, to avoid bogus voting. Office In-charge Voters list files to be used on voting day tables are also to be prepared ahead of time. Tables are arranged at street corners (after requisite permissions) to enable voters to find their names on the voting list. Party symbols can not be used here. Food Packets are also arranged to be dropped inside the polling booth. Co-ordination of vehicles for voting day is important. CELEBRATION-DAY TEAM All the above included! VOTER BASICS Contrary to popular belief, you are not automatically enrolled as a voter. To enroll as a new voter, please fill up form 6 and form 1A, at the Election Commission of India (ECI) center in your area, with *ATTESTED* photocopy of:
• Residence
proof (ration card or electric bill or bank pass book or passport) If you already have a Voter's photo ID card and it requires no change, then nothing is to be done. Existing Voters: if you need to add your photograph to voter's list:
• Attach
photographs to Form 1B To download forms, please go to: http://www.diehardindian.com/ngo/kypforms.htm Duty of the voter Main duty of the voter, is to find your name in the voter's list, before the voting day. This may be done at the local ECI office OR local political party office OR online at: If your name is not found in the voter’s list (and you have filled up Form 6); please check a few buildings next to yours (before and after your building entry in the voter’s list). Atleast 10% of the times, there are errors in the list, where your name may appear in some other section of your booth. On the voting day, the voter must carry the election Photo ID. If that’s not available, then the voting slip (as delivered by any political party) with any government photo ID will do. Election Code of conduct
What is bogus voting? If a person has moved from his/ her residence, it’s the duty of the voter to inform the ECI, by filling out Form 7. In case of a death, the voters relatives should inform the ECI. If the name is NOT deleted from the voter’s list, then another person may assume this person’s identity and vote on his/her behalf. This is Bogus voting. It is a crime to do so, but this practice is still prevalent. This can be checked by having a sharp polling agent inside the booth, who can ask for the identity of the voter. Has Booth capturing virtually stopped? Earlier ECI used to print ballot papers. Voters would select their choice and insert it in the ballot box. In sensitive booths, armed bandits would seize the booth and vote. But ECI has become more active in patrolling such booths AND since the advent of the EVM (Electronic Voting machine), this has reduced a lot. ECI can order re-polling in a particular booth, if it suspects foul play. These also are reasons, why people like Lalu Prasad Yadav may have lost the last Bihar elections. However CPI (M) and West Bengal may be another story! Counting The EVM’s are stored under strict government supervision till the counting day. Chief counting Agent of each candidate leads a team of counting agents to witness EVM’s being opened, after the seal is checked to be intact. For eg a vidhan sabha counting may have 12 counting agents, inside the counting room. Other stuff
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