Back Safe from Election Duty

One of the biggest events in the country is the General Elections which involves massive coordination and lakhs of people to conduct it. For the outsiders it might seem as a smooth enough job after the elections are over but for those who conduct it the job is nothing less than a daylight nightmare. The ones who are responsible for its smooth (or not) conduct are the government employees like yours truly.

One job (or responsibility) that most government staffers are reluctant to perform is election duty. It is so because election duty is mentally and physically stressful not to mention risky. However, once you are drafted for election duty it is next to impossible to dodge it unless you have the ability to pull strings. Having no such ability I had to report for election duty last Wednesday at Masab Tank where we had to collect the election material and go to the polling station allotted. My heart sank when I learnt that I was given a polling station deep inside the heart of the Old City, in a notorious area. I was posted in a place called Talabkatta, right beside Bhavaninagar where even hardened cops dread to enter when there are disturbances in the city. The only saving grace was that it was a polling station exclusively for women voters and there were only less than eight hundred voters in all.

The ordinary voter does not know how difficult it is for the people who conduct the election. There are a million things that need to be done if every thing has to go right. On Wednesday morning I reached the distribution center along with a bag with stuff for an overnight stay at the polling station. One by one the rest of my team trickled in. Three of them were women and all of them were teachers. The other two were men- one was a young, tall Income Tax Inspector and another was from the Defence Accounts department. In all, I was leading a team of five people and on my team rested the responsibility of two Electronic Voting Machines and a million forms that we have to fill and submit after the voting is over. It took us three hours for us to check everything we were given right down to a sheet of pins. Soon it was time for lunch but there was disappointment in store.

The arrangements were chaotic and most of us did not get lunch. Some of us had to literally beg to be given a packet of food. Disgusted, I went along with the Defence guy to er…Hyderabad House which was close to the distribution center. The other choice was Hotel Golkonda but we did not have enough money on us. However, I had no time to check out the quality of the food because I was too hungry as it was three in the afternoon. In the hotel was a burly guy dressed in pure white, a politician whom I would be encountering next day. After lunch, we were herded into city buses accompanied by cops armed to the teeth in separate vehicles. Actually, men from the bomb squad checked our bags before allowing us into the building in the morning.

Late in the evening we reached the polling station which was actually a school building. It was a private school and housed four polling stations in just three rooms on the first floor. My polling station was even worse. I had to share a single room with another polling station separated by a cloth partition. We got down to work sorting out the material, sticking the mandatory notices, arranging the furniture which was nothing but benches. The floor was pock marked with holes and there were no windows except one beside the door. It was hot and stuffy in the room. The rest of my team left except the Defence guy leaving me with the EVMs and other material. As a Presiding Officer I was responsible for the safety of the material so there was no way I could leave them.

We came to the Yakutpura railway station where we had tea. For dinner we had to go to Santoshnagar. At night I put together three wooden benches and slept on it with my rolled up jeans and a towel for a pillow. I was glad there was a ceiling fan though it rotated slowly. On the walls were drawings of vegetables (Ladies ‘Fingure’), fruits and animals (horse was spelt as ‘hourse’. This, in a school!) Needless to say I couldn’t sleep in that stuffy room. The other guy went up on the terrace but I had no choice because as Presiding Officer I was responsible for the material.

Finally, I woke up at five on Election Day and got ready after a bath under a tap in the open courtyard of the school. The rest of my team arrived one by one. There was nervousness and anxiety as voting hour inched closer. We were in a tizzy as the polling agents had not arrived even by six thirty as we had to conduct a mock poll before them. Mine was a women’s polling station and already a lengthy queue had formed. Somehow we quickly conducted the mock poll before the three polling agents, sealed the machines and started the poll a little after seven. From then there was no respite for us until three in the afternoon when there was a slight lull in the voting. I had a grueling time standing on my feet for nine hours non-stop guiding the voters as well as my team.

The women assistants in my team had promised to get food for all of us and it was really sweet of them to bring dosas, bread and jam for breakfast which I had standing up. The voting went on briskly as the women voters were quite eager and enthusiastic in casting their votes. The EVMs were a novelty but most of them, even the educated ones, did not know how to operate it. I had to explain to each and every voter how to do it. It became hotter inside as the day dragged on. Sweat poured down my face, my clothes clung to my back and I longed for a cool jug of water.

Come lunch time and my women assistants took out steel tiffin boxes containing fried rice and also curd rice. At least we did not go hungry. All the hotels were closed it seems and we were saved by the women team members.

I had a tough time as there were frequent visitors asking for a million things. There were people from Election Watch appearing self-important. I had my hands full with the voters, my team members asking me for clarifications, other official visitors and here they were, Election Watch, asking questions. I very nearly sent them out for not carrying passes with them. Then came an important visitor, one of the candidates- a pahelwan. It was the same guy I had seen at Hyderabad House the day before. He too wasn’t wearing his ID card and pass but he smiled away when I pointed it out. He shook hands with all the team members and left. I had a grueling time on Thursday and when it was four I thanked my stars the polling had gone smoothly. For the next three hours we worked sealing the machines, filling up the forms and other details. At seven or so the bus arrived to take us back to the same place where we had collected the material the day before.

It was the same chaotic scene with everyone rushing to hand over the election material and go home. There were heated scenes and one polling staff was shouting at the people collecting the stuff for the delay. I had seen such scenes in the past too but I was surprised that in the city where I expected better arrangements, it was the same. GHMC which looked after the arrangements failed here too. Finally, at about half past nine, hungry and exhausted I thanked all my team members and was back home. I was glad I played a small but significant role in making the wheels of democracy run smoothly yet another time.

Next Post on Friday- The Sunday Haul