About the Website
This website has been created for the above project and will carry short field reports from researchers who are currently conducting ethnographic research into the meaning that elections hold for the electorate. Shifting the emphasis away from 'who will win', this study of elections will investigate the reasons for why people vote at all, what their motivations are, how the election campaign is experienced by ordinary voters and what their experience of casting their vote on election day is like. We hope to update these posts frequently during the period of the elections.
Project Specifics
This project is entitled 'Panchayat and Vidhan Sabha elections 2012-2015' with Dr Mukulika Banerjee of the London School of Economics and Political Science as its Principal Investigator and is a part of a larger study launched by the European Research Network Programme: "Explaining Electoral Change in Rural and Urban India". It is funded by the Indian-European Research Networking Programme ANR-DFG-ESRC-ICSSR-NOW Joint Funding Scheme, Reference Number: 465-11-031.
Project Site
This study currently being conducted during the State level Vidhan Sabha elections in the states of Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi, is part of a larger three-year project to investigate these questions. The four project sites identified for this year's project are: 1. Kelabari, Dalli Rajhara, Chattisgarh, 2. Sirohi, Abu Road, Rajasthan, 3. Raghubir Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Delhi and 4. Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
Project Execution
Governance Now, a print and web publication on public policy, is executing this project study under the supervision of Dr Banerjee. Two senior journalists of Governance Now will be observing the elections for one month by living in the vicinity of the project sites. They have been on the ground since November 14.
Earlier Project Sites
As part of this project last year, Governance Now journalists covered two constituencies in Gujarat. Click here to read their reports.
PROJECT SITE:
KELABARI,Dalli Rajhara, Chattisgarh
WHAT: Tucked in the foothills of Dalli mines, municipality ward numbers 11 and 12 are part of Dalli Rajhara, a town in Balod district of Chhattisgarh. The wards are largely inhabited by squatters once employed in mining carried out by and for Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP). Like the rest of the town, the land belongs to the BSP and Indian Railways.
A majority of the inhabitants (municipal councilor of Ward 12 Narmada Sahare puts them at over 90%) have been unemployed form over a decade now, when they were laid off due to reduction in mining activity, engagement of private contractors and installation of heavy machines.
The others still work as helpers, drivers and technicians for private contractors involved in mining or other activities... more |
PROJECT SITE:
REDVAKALAN, Abu Road, Rajasthan
WHAT: Surrounded by hills on all sides, Redvakalan is one of 5 villages under Kiyaria panchayat of Abu Road block in Rajasthan. It falls under Reodar, a reserved constituency for scheduled castes. A tribal village with 90 percent of 2,000 population belonging to Garasia tribe, it has 1,095 voters (552 male, 544 female).
WHERE: Redvakalan lies about 6 km from the nearest town, Abu Road, and 2 km off the Abu Road-Reodar state highway. A cemented track leads up to the village. The village is a distributed into a number of falis (or hamlets) with 10 to 15 families in each fali. Reodar is one of the three assembly constituencies in Rajasthan’s Sirohi district. A reserved constituency for scheduled caste since 1980, it is dominated by Meghwal and Koli community that make up more than 50%...
more
|
|
PROJECT SITE:
RAGHUBIR NAGAR,Rajouri Garden,Delhi
WHAT: Raghubir Nagar is a resettlement colony, part of the Rajouri Garden assembly constituency in west Delhi. We are focusing on polling station nunmber 63(1138 vites:588 male 550 female) and 64 (1201 votes: 661 male 540 female). The polling booth will be located in an Government School in Raghubir Nagar.
The colony is divided into various blocks. A majority of the inhabitants in these blocks are migrant families of Gujarat, who go door to door offering steel utensils in exchange of old clothes. Women and children are equally involved in earning the livelihood this way. And perhaps that’s the reason that most families do not send their children, especially girls, to school.
People start their day as early as 5 am, when they go to a nearby mandi to sell old clothes. And in the afternoon they leave their houses again to sell utensils in exchange of old clothes in various residential colonies.
more
|
PROJECT SITE:
SAMARDHA, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
WHAT: Samardha village, part of Huzur constituency in Bhopal, has three polling booths: numbers 204 (1,245 voters), 205 (970 voters) and 206 (1,554 voters). The three booths cover Samardha village and four colonies: Krishnapuram, Radhapuram, Liberty and Shubhalay. Huzur was declared a separate constituency in the last assembly elections after delimitation in 2007.
Where: Located around 20 km from the state capital, Samardha lies alongside NH-12, called Hoshangabad Road by locals. The village is dominated by people of ‘backward’ category, including 35% OBCs (Ghoshi, Patidar and Rai), 30% SCs (mostly Ahirwar) and 20% STs (Darohi, Uikey and Dhurve). People from ‘general category’ constitute 10% of the population and the remaining 5% are Muslims.
The four colonies also have almost similar occupancy.
more
|
New Stories
Though the election commission approved the new right to reject option a long time ago and claims to have advertised a lot about it, for many people living in Raghubir Nagar it is a new concept. And for those who know about it, it is not an option at all.
Reena, a community worker, associated with an NGO working for women empowerment, said the much-talked-about “none of the above” (NOTA) option will encourage voters to participate in the electoral process. “We are encouraging people who do not vote to vote this time and use this option,” she said. “People here are not educated and do not read newspapers. The election commission should have used methods to advertise about this concept.
“They watch television, but hardly have any information on NOTA. We are telling that they must vote and can press NOTA if they do not like any candidate.”
Stressing that he is hardly impressed by the new option introduced by the election commission, another resident, Shiv Kumar, said, “I have always voted for our pradhan, and I would do that this time as well. I don’t know about others, but I trust him.” Kumar, who heard about NOTA in television news, added, “Why should I waste my vote by pressing any such button?”
His wife, who just knows about the leaders she would be voting for on Wednesday, was unaware of any such option. “My husband has told me whom we have to give our vote. I would go and press that button.”
“Chunavi mela” comes to end
As campaigning ended for the Delhi Assembly elections on Monday evening, parties made a last-minute rush to grab voter's attention. Workers and volunteers of all three main parties – the ruling Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – tried their best to keep their voters happy on the last two days.
“There had been a lot of noise in the last two days. The candidates did not come but their supports came. All of them requested us to vote for them,” Raghubir Nagar resident Bhishan, 46, said on Tuesday (December 3) evening.
According to him, most people have already decided whom to vote for, and the others would decide as The Time closes in. “Majority of votes here goes to our pradhan. But there are some who are thinking again, because this time his wife is contesting,” Bhishan said.
Bheem Sen, 65, pointed out the lack of development in the area: “He (the local MLA) had promised the last time that he would make sewer in the jhuggis (slums), but did nothing of the sort in the last five years. People, however, are still thinking of voting for him. And those who are not, they would change their plan after seeing the majority.”
“Confident” that only their pradhan would keep his promise, Rajesh, 32, said: “Many parties and their candidates have come to us in the last ten day. Some promised plots and some said they would make toilets. But I do not believe anyone except our pradhan. He has ensured that the work of sewer would be done soon after elections.”
Cash for vote
It is no secret that votes in the slums are often decided with the help of cash distributed, and the jhuggis of Raghubir Nagar in west Delhi are no different.
Usha, 48, a community worker, said cash has been distributed to women by two party candidates a day before the campaigning wound up. She said that many women have been given Rs 1000. “Unlike last time, they did not come here. They called women to a nearby place to distribute it (cash),” she said.
Gauri, a domestic worker, alleged that both the main parties had promised cash before elections. “Many of them got it but I couldn’t get any. They had asked women to bring their documents along. I was out for work and missed it.”
Refusing to talk about it, Mani, her neighbour, said, “What is the value of Rs 1,000 today? Everything costs a bomb...it would be over in a day!”
Leela-behn, an octogenarian residing in the slum colony for years, angrily said, “Agar le bhi liya toh kya ho gaya? Neta log kitna paisa loot-tein hain, garibo ne thoda le bhi liya to kya bigad gaya?” (What is the problem even if we have taken the money? The politicians take a lot of money, what if we poor people have taken some?)
However, Gauri added that unlike last time, the money has not been distributed to everyone: “They told everyone to bring their photo identity cards and they took pictures. And then only they gave the money, because many people did not vote last time.”
Less than 24 hours to go
It was a usual day in the jhuggi. An evening before the elections, women were busy preparing food, while children were playing.
If there would be no party pamphlets lying on the floors, or children wearing caps, it would have been difficult to say people here were going to cast their vote the next day.
With less than 24 hours to the Delhi Assembly polls, people were confident of their pradhan’s win. “The election mela (fair) has ended. People have done what they wanted to do. Now time would tell who wins,” said Shiv Kumar, 37, who repairs old clothes before selling them. “Ab toh faisle ka din aaya hai (it’s the day of reckoning now).”
There is a widespread belief among people that the present pradhan’s wife would win the election. As the day wound up on December 3, the slum dwellers silently prepared to go out vote in large numbers the following day. “Jiska namak khaya hai ab chukana to padega,” said Koki, a 45-year-old domestic worker, making it amply clear that her vote would go to the pradhan’s family.
Although people are sure of their pradhan’s win, there is a bit of apprehensive as well.
Asha, 40, who sell steel utensils, is apprehensive that if the other party wins they would stop issuing ration cards in the name of women, which was started by the Sheila Dikshit government. “The card is on our name now. We get a lot of benefits because of that. Our pradhan has told us that it’s all because of Sheila-ji. We would stop getting the benefits if the other government comes in power.”
.....more
770 out of 1095 turned up to vote on Sunday
Keeping up with high voting percentage at the state that reached 74, almost 70 percent of the Redvakalan residents turned up to vote for the assembly elections on Sunday. Of the total 1095 voters in the village, as many as 770 voted.
Jhora Ram was at the main gate of the polling booth, the primary school in Redvakalan at 7.45am, fifteen minutes before it was thrown open for polling. Dressed in crisp white dhoti and green kurta, the ex-sarpanch of the village had walked four kilometers to reach the polling station. “I have always been the first to vote in every election, I wanted to be the first today as well,” he said. Behind him were twenty others all dressed as nattily. Women queued up besides men and were dressed in their colourful best.
Champa Bai, draped in a bright red shawl to ward off the early morning chill, said she had finished the household chores early in the morning to reach the polling booth to vote. “I wanted to be done early before the queue gets longer,” she said.
By the time the clock struck 8 and constable Sakha Ram opened the gates, the queue had grown bigger. They were let in one by one to cast their votes. Inside the gate, ahead of the polling booth, sat Pabu Ram, the booth level officer (BLO). The voters before entering the booth, consulted with the BLO to check if they had the necessary documents.
Kalu photo and voters slip
“You need to have your voters slip along with your ‘kalu photo’ in order to vote,” said the BLO as the voters entered the gate.( Kalu photo is the voter identity card (epic) and is called thus as the majority of the mug shots on them turned out to be black). “But is it not written here that the voters slip in itself is the identity card and good enough to vote?” questioned Jhora ram, the veteran voter. “Is it so? Let me check with the polling officer,” said the BLO as he went inside the booth to clarify. “Yes, yes you were right, you will need to show the ‘kalu photo’ only when there is some mistake in the voters slip,” said the BLO.
Women match men in numbers
Initially, for first few hours, men far outnumbered women in the queue for voting. However by ten o’clock both the queues were similar in length. “Those men who have to go to town for work are the first to arrive,” said Pita Ram. “Women come in after 10 after having finished their household chores,” he explained. By 12 pm the women queue had far outgrown the men’s. Lassi Bai, a mother of two had come after having made food for the children and wanted to get home before 1 pm so that she could get her goats out for grazing. By 12 pm, as much as 400 had voted and looking at the brisk pace of voting, it seemed, it would end at 2pm.
Many familiar faces
As men and women queued up for voting I could see many familiar faces, those I had conversation with many times in the village asking them why did they vote and why it was important to them. While it was not surprising to see those who had said voting was their right and they voted for the good of the village, it was indeed a pleasant surprise to find those who had said they would not vote this election, standing in the queue. Meera bai, Lakshmi bai, Veera Ram, Suga Ram, all of them who had sounded non-committal were there in the queue. “Well since the entire village is voting how could we not vote,” said Veera Ram, before I questioned him why he was voting. “Last night I made up my mind to vote after a discussion in the family,” said Meera bai, who had earlier said she would not vote as none of the parties cared for the village.
Liquor, cash motivation for voting?
While Meera Bai may have been motivated to vote by her family members, there were whispers about liquor being the primary reason why many men were standing to vote. “It cannot be confirmed who were supplied with a bottle of English (Indian made foreign liquor), but we know for sure, the truck carrying liquor made rounds in the village last night,” said Pabu Ram the BLO. So do the voters get influenced a bottle of English? “No one knows for sure but the agents who supply the liquor on behalf of the parties in contention do promise their master of favourable result. Those who receive the liquor also promised to vote for the supplier party,” he said. “Jiski bazri uski hazri, is what the voters promise.”
Vote for change
Listening to the conversation on cash/liquor for vote for long, Bhera Ram, the 70-year-old farmer joined in strongly refuting BLO Pabu Ram’s insinuations. “While I accept that villagers do accept liquor or cash they do not sell their votes for sure. I have been around for many elections to say this with authority,” he said. “People vote for the good of the village, and its people.”
Jhora Ram, the ex sarpanch agreed. “I am here to vote for the development of the village. Look at the road leading up to the polling booth, I had difficulty walking up to here. It has not been built since ages. I will send a message to the sitting MLA, through my vote” he said.
Roma Bai, who ran a small shop in the village wanted to vote for the one who had promised electricity in the village. “Not far from this village on the main road there is a new colony that has electricity round the clock but here we have been living in the dark since many years now. I will vote for change,” she said.
Voter turnout in Samardha went up to 62.32 percent up from 55 percent in the 2008 assembly elections
There was still an hour to go but they simply couldn’t wait. Decked up, dishevelled, bleary-eyed, anxious and bored- all kinds of them had queued up outside the government-run primary school waiting to get inside. The necessary arrangements were in place and the falling temperatures had also thankfully levelled. Samardha was all set to make that important choice of who would represent the Huzur constituency, to which it belongs, in the legislative assembly.
That entire thrill to exercise their franchise was not for nothing as the Samardha polling booth did witness a jump in the voter turnout from 55 percent in the 2008 assembly elections to 62.32 percent on Monday. This was close to the overall 64.04 percent voter turnout in the Huzur constituency. Residents from Samardha and four nearby colonies- Krishnapuram, Radhapuram, Liberty and Shubhalay had turned out in huge numbers and a total of 2326 votes were polled at booth numbers 204, 205 and 206 in the primary school.
There was a clear demarcation as to how the voters would turn out.
The early birds who had arrived an hour before the polling was to begin were the village women and those who had misplaced their voter slips or had not received them in the first place. The village women preferred to get done with their voting as early as possible before the village elderly and the men arrived.
They discussed and giggled about their voting as they walked out of the polling booth. They were happy that they had finished the “baahar ka kaam (outside work)” early and could now return to their household duties.
Savitri Bai, who had turned up in a bright red embroidered saree, was among the first to arrive. “Ab apan ki sarkaar banegi. Apan ne toh apna kaam kar diya aur ab unki (sarkaar ki) baari hai (Now, the people of my choice will come to power. I have done my job and now it is the government’s turn),” she says flashing a wide grin.
Kamla Maskhey, who is in her sixties, had worn the same saree she wore on Diwali. While her daughter Pinky, another first time voter, tried to joke about it, Kamla replied, “Khaas din hao aaj. Apan ka vote keemti hao, thoda achcha ban ke aana chahiye (It is an important day today. Our votes are important, we must look presentable).”
As the women stood in groups waiting for their relatives and neighbours to come out of the booth, discussions on who had voted for whom began instantaneously. When asked about her choice, a woman, in her forties, casually replied, “Apan ne ussi pe daala hao jiski kismat sabse mazboot hao (I have voted for the one whose destiny is the strongest)!”
The other lot of the early birds included those who had turned up without their voting slips. They were seen crowding around the small tent put outside the school campus to collect their voting slips from the three booth level officers (BLOs) - two of them were the primary school teachers and the third was the village's panchayat secretary. The speed with which the BLOs scanned through lists only kept increasing as the crowd of impatient voters present in the tent continued to swell.
Having spent over an hour hunting for his slip and finally being unable to find it, Maneesh Srivastava, 34, and a few others decided to return home without casting their votes.
"I have been voting in Samardha for the last 10 years in all the elections- big or small and today the BLOs are not able to locate my slip. This is so disappointing. I came all the way from Bhopal and arrived here at 7 in the morning just so that I could collect my voter slip in time to cast my vote and leave early," said Srivastava, who shifted out of Liberty colony around two years ago. "I still own a house here (in Liberty) and Samardha continues to remain my polling booth but somehow my name is missing from both the voting list and the deleted voters list," he explains.
And Srivastava was not the only one to have faced this problem as a few more were seen returning home without being able to exercise their franchise.
Kesar Singh and his wife Usha Bai too wore angry looks not being able to vote. In Singh's voter slip, all other details including his photograph are correct but his name has been replaced with that of his brother. Meanwhile in his wife's voter slip, all other details are correct but her photograph has been replaced with that of somebody else. "Ab toh hamara vote barbaad hi jaayega. Faaltu mein itni subah aaye (Now our vote will go to waste. We arrived early in the morning for nothing)," Singh said.
In yet another case, a young girl who cast her vote for the first time was identified as a man. "Not that I'll not be allowed to vote but how can they be that blind?" she questioned as she made her way to the polling booth.
Calling for the elimination of such loopholes from an important process like elections, Srivastava said, "I won't be able to select the state government. Such loopholes in the voting process should not be there because every vote matters. I just hope that I'll be able to vote in the general elections."
For the men who had accompanied their wives and mothers, the polling booth became a perfect place to catch up with their friends and old uncles from the colony whom they otherwise rarely met due to hectic work schedules. They had decided to vote in the end as they sat down in different groups around the BLO tent to get into random chatter on topics ranging from Shivraj mama to Sachin. The kids were a disappointed lot as they weren’t allowed inside the booth. Having tried their best to sit with their fathers, who went on with their discussions, the kids then got down to their own fun and games.
It was by 9:30-10 am that the elderly village men were seen arriving at the polling booth briskly walking inside the school gates to join the queue. Having cast their vote, they walked out wearing proud smiles and stood in small groups to discuss the voter turnout, excitement and the probable winners but remained hush-hush on whom they voted for. "Bahut utsaah hao yahaan pe. Log zyaada hao iss baar. Achcha chunaav hoga (There is much excitement here. A lot of people have come this time. It will be a good election)," said 73-year-old Sardar Singh Rajput who works as a farmer.
Joking with Rajput and few other elders for not disclosing their choice, one of the men standing close-by said, “Matdaata maun hai. Na jaane jeetne waala kaun hai (The voter is silent. Nobody knows who will win),” and the group roared with laughter.
Meanwhile, close to the primary school, the younger boys were seen playing cricket in the nearby field. On being asked why they had not joined the queues, one of them said, “Abhi ek-do match ho jaaye phir daalenge apan vote. Waise bhi poora din pada hua hao (We’ll go after playing a couple of matches. In any case, we have the whole day).”
By around noon, the younger girls, most of whom were first-time voters, were seen walking towards the polling booth in groups visibly excited. Having been informed by their parents about the importance of the voter slips, all of them had turned up with full preparation. “Apan toh ghar ka saara kaam nipta ke, aaraam se tayyar hoke aaye. Ab late hua toh bhi koi dikkat nahi hai (We came only after finishing all the household chores and now even if we get late, there will not be any problem).” Ask them about the excitement levels and one of them chuckles, “Bas khushi mein galat button na dab jaaye (I just hope that in all this excitement, I don’t press the wrong button)!”
The young boys who looked fatigued by late afternoon decided to finally cast their votes and return home for lunch so that they could back in the evening just before the polling ended. Soon to join them were the men, who had run out all the discussion topics by then. Their little picnic had come to an end.
Voters continued to trickle in till the last hour and the crowd had visibly shrunk by then. It was only the party workers, the BLOs and the security personnel deployed at the booth who stuck around till the end. A little while after the final counting of total votes polled were done, papers bundled and the voting machines sealed, the little troupe of security and election commission officials left in their vans and cars as the curtains came down on yet another round of peaceful elections in Samardha.
Young housewives pull out best of their sarees while young men wear shades to the polling centre
No alcoholics loitering around on the streets, no glum faces grieving about lack of amenities and unemployment and no public fights over filling up water from the common pipes. The residents of Kelabadi, a lower-middle class slum on the outskirts of Dalli rajhara and part of Dondilohara assembly constituency, put their best foot forward on November 19, the day of reckoning for them and their counterparts in 72 assembly constituencies of Chhattisgarh.
As the sun, they took bath, had breakfast, put on their best dresses and queued up outside polling booths 192, 193 and 194 housed in a government middle school. Young housewives pulled out best of their sarees, wore bangles (some of them up to elbows) and bindis matching with the colour of their saree and coyly walked behind their husbands to the polling centre.
Young men wore goggles and drove to the polling centre on their bikes. For whatever reason, they were courtesy personified till voting ended on Tuesday.
Ram Kumar Sonawane (see picture), a local resident who performs on Chhattisgarhi film songs, in fact changed his outfit thrice in less than 16 hours.
Sonawane, who has grown a moustache like brigand Veerappan, first appeared in the polling centre in fatigues on November 18, and the 20-member Border Security Force (BSF) team deployed there for security mistook him for an armyman. In morning, he wore a cowboy hat and green and red-striped shirt.
After 11 am, he roamed around dressed in green and red clothes (the colour of the Chhattisgarh Mukti Morcha, or CMM, flag).
There was competition to be the first voter in all three booths. Apparently, the election agents of the three major contenders – Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party and CMM – who were inside since 7 am, when the electronic voting machines (EVM) were first tested, had an advantage in this. No wonder, in booth number 192, Jitendra Matre, a BJP agent, beat the competition to be first voter.
But in booth 194, a youth called Mahendra Sarva pipped the party agents to the post.
The old, middle-aged and young – all of them looked happy, fresh and posed gaily for the pictures. By 11 am, over 50 percent of the total 1,617 voters had their index fingers inked. After that, voting turned into a trickle and in the last three hours before close the polling officers were literally waiting for the voters. Only half a dozen voters turned up in the last one hour. When the clock struck 5 pm and the security men were about to close in, an old couple came running – they were allowed to make use of their franchise!
By day end, combined polling of the three booths stood at more than 77 percent. Booth 192 clocked the highest (over 79 percent), while women voters (644) exceeded their male counterparts (604) in exercising their franchise.
Significantly, the polling day was the also first day in the last 20 when a drunken man did not try to engage this correspondent into a conversation! The BSF team claimed credit for enforcing the prohibition.
The only blip on the free and fair voting in Kelabadi was a rumour that said Narmada Sahare, the Congress municipal councilor, had asked the voters to stay off button number 5, which belonged to CMM candidate Janak Lal Thakur. Though Sahare, when confronted by CMM workers, called it a joke, it was obviously an attempt to keep the voters off ‘kite’, the electoral symbol of CMM.
The presiding officers of all three booths were in direct contact with the election commission of India in New Delhi through the day and each one of them would have sent the mandatory 15 SMSes by the end of November 19. The PO began the day by sending an SMS at 7 am after testing the EVM, followed it up with another one at the start of voting at 8 AM and yet another one at 9 am about the status of polling. After wards, the PO sent a message after every two hours till 5 PM. He sent a message again after sealing the EVM and another one after its submission at district headquarters.
.....more