During his stint as an employee of the Accountant General’s (AG’s) office in Bengaluru, my maternal uncle MD Umapathi often donned the presiding officer’s hat while on election duty. He recounts that government employees on poll duty had to attend a briefing ritual at the BBMP headquarters at NR Square before an armed police-escorted bus ferried them to the polling venue. Circa 1980, the uncle was allocated a government Urdu school near his residence for poll duty.
The uncle, who helmed the team had three polling officers, including a woman, and two armed constables to assist him. The officers on election duty were under strict orders not to leave their posts. But the uncle couldn’t resist the urge to enjoy home-cooked fare and the company of his dear ones. So, pleading with the cops to hold the fort until his return the following morning, he took their leave and left. Rules forbid officers on poll duty from sneaking out of the camp. But many dared to throw the rule book out of the window.
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The uncle rushed back to join poll duty early morning, and so did the woman polling officer who had also abandoned her post the previous night. The two armed policemen didn’t let their guard down, staying awake all night, but the male polling officers caught a few winks. However, the candidates’ acquaintances ensured to keep them in good humour, doling out a steady supply of food and beverages. The freebies kept coming till they drew the poll curtains.
As voting began and residents joined the serpentine queue in front of the polling booth, little did one expect a drama to unfold. The morning voting passed without incident, but the post-lunch session threw up the unexpected. While the polling officers went about their jobs with quiet elan, the uncle strictly watched the voters. When asked to disclose his identity, one teenager who came to cast his vote raised eyebrows by blurting out the name of my sibling and uncle’s nephew, NJ Gokul Nath.
When prodded further for his father’s name and the place where he lived, the miscreant gave my dad’s name and address. This lie was enough to nail him. Although he accepted his wrongdoing, the police held him in a closed room. As the afternoon wore on, a dozen other pranksters who tried to hoodwink the poll officials by casting fake votes got caught in the act.
Here’s another episode that took place at the same venue and the same election. A resident going mutton shopping at the local market couldn’t resist the temptation of making a fast buck and gleefully accepted a bribe of Rs 20 to vote for a regional party candidate. But this didn’t escape the eyes of the other contestants, who quickly hauled him off to the uncle. Finally, the voter admitted his folly, and the errant candidate got the stick too. In days of yore, the voters dropped the ballot papers in an open box. But adopting dubious means, including kidnapping candidates before the election, was par for the course.
Today, thanks to technology, elections have been streamlined, resulting in faster counting of ballots, reducing the cost of counting billions of votes manually and providing improved accessibility for disabled voters.
