There are constituencies in the remote, far-flung corners of certain parts of Gujarat with only a handful of registered voters. Why, there is just one voter, who lives amid the lions and leopards in the Gir forest. But the Election Commission of India ensures that every eligible citizen gets to participate in the country’s five-yearly democratic rite.
But it is not easy. It is a daunting task to make arrangements for voting for the few voters living there. Despite heavy odds, election officers and workers, escorted by police personnel, reach there in advance and set up polling booths for these particular voters. And they have to compulsorily stay overnight there and ensure that the voting starts on time the next morning even if there is a solitary registered voter or less than ten. If the voter, or voters, prefers to come for voting in the closing hours of the day, or decides to stay abstain, poll officials have no other option but to wait and wait before packing up at the scheduled time.
Few polling stations in Gujarat are in the middle of a river and sea and can be reached only by boat. For instance, Juna Raj village near Baroda is in the middle of a river. The only possible way to reach there is by boat and the polling staff, too, have no other option.
Shiyal Bet village, 18 km from port town Jafrabad in Amreli district, is in the middle of the sea. Most of its 9000-odd population is involved in fishing. They have to commute or transport by boat only. There are three polling stations in Shiyal Bet, but no electricity, though it is promised to them in each new election.
Similarly, there are only 28 (14 men, 14 women) registered voters on the Ajad island near Jam Khambhaliya in the newly created Dwarka district. Until the last legislative assembly elections in Gujarat in December 2012, these voters used to travel 18 kilometres by boat to reach the nearby Nana Aasota polling centre and cast their votes. But the Election Commission has now recognised Ajad and given it official status as a polling centre. The authorities have already begun making efforts to ensure there is 100 per cent voting in Ajad when the parliamentary elections take place in Gujarat on April 30.
Banej’s is an even more interesting case. Nestled in the heart of the 1,412 sq km Gir forest, the only habitat of the rare Asiatic lions, on the Saurashtra peninsula, Banej is unique for its sole registered voter. Mahant Bharatdas (62), a school dropout from Rajasthan who is the priest at an ancient temple in Banej for the past 20 years or so is the hamlet’s only resident and voter.
Bharatdas had cast his franchise in the 2004 and 2009 national elections and in 2007 and 2012 legislative assembly polls. Whenever there are elections in Gujarat, the administration sets up a special polling booth and appoints a full staff for this lone voter in Banej, who has become quite a star in his own right.
Bharatdas will again be the most privileged voter and cynosure of all eyes. The state election authorities have begun making necessary arrangements. A polling booth will be set up in a one-room office of the forest department at Banej. A presiding officer, two polling officers, a peon and an armed policeman will reach Banej a day before the voting.
“Nearly 80 people used to reside in Banej a couple of decades ago. But all of them have migrated to different places over the years. I’m the only one left behind. I cast my vote in every election without fail,” the bearded priest, who considers it his “moral and national duty” to exercise his franchise, said in an interview. “It is very heartening that the authorities give Banej its due in every election and do not treat it differently from any other constituency despite my being the only registered voter there.”
In the same Gir, there are only nine registered voters in the Saapnes hamlet near Talala, which is famous for its Keshar mango, and 19 in Devaliya. Yet, full-fledged polling squads will reach there and the voting will take place with due ceremony on April 30.
Image: Mahant Bharatdas the lone voter in Banej
