'What is the harm in having more polling booths?'
The voting process for any election in India starts at 7 am and ends at 6 pm.
In these 11 hours if you take an average of 1 voter spending 1 minute in an election booth, then that particular booth can accommodate 660 voters in 11 hours.
But here is the catch.
The Election Commission of India has raised the number of voters from 1,200 to 1,500 voters per polling booth.
Seeing no rationale behind this move, social activist Indu Prakash Singh filed a Public Interest Litigation against the ECI.
"It looked like voters did not matter to the ECI. Did the ECI put an advertisement informing voters that they are increasing the number of voters per polling booth and does anyone has objections? They never did that," Indu Prakash Singh tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com.
What is your PIL about?
Election Commission of India raised their norm for voters from 800 to 1000 people to 1,500 people per polling booth. Now if you take 1 minute per person in one polling booth then you cannot take more than 660 people to vote. This considering the fact that voting hours are from 7 am to 6 pm.
So there was no rationale for the Election Commission to increase the number of voters per polling booth. This leads to a mad scramble and huge queues at polling booths. In Delhi during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, I saw people do not vote when they see huge queues.
Does it mean that not more than 660 people can vote in one polling booth with one voting machine in 11 hours? But ECI is saying 1,500 people should vote in one polling booth.
Yes, absolutely. There is heat at times and there are rains during voting period and when the ECI cannot cater to the huge rush at polling stations, why not add more polling stations?
They are increasing more voters per polling booth rather than adding more polling booths and reduce the number of voters per booth.
But where did you get this figure on the ECI increasing the number to 1,500 voters per polling booth? Your PIL has come at a time when Opposition parties in Maharashtra are stating that the number of voters increased dramatically leading to their loss.
My argument is simple, when the ECI knows that 660 people can vote in one polling station where one EVM is kept so why are they reducing the number of polling stations?
This means that there will be a mad scramble to vote and people will see the huge rush and not vote.
Were you not able to vote?
In Delhi in the last Lok Sabha elections I saw people going back home without casting their vote. In a few polling booths people were standing in huge queues where there was no water to drink and no toilet facilities. This was the condition of Delhi city, you can then imagine what would be the condition of polling booths in the interior villages of Uttar Pradesh.
What is the harm in having more polling booths? Voting is the sovereign right of every voter in this country.
What solution are you proposing?
The simple idea is that there should not be more than 800 to 1,000 people per polling booth.
How did you know that 1,500 voters are allowed to vote per polling booth?
This was in the letter published by the ECI. I have annexed this letter in my petition.
They decided on 1,500 voters abruptly.
This is not done. And when I questioned them they said they have discussed this issue with political parties.
It looked like voters did not matter to the ECI. Did the ECI put an advertisement informing voters that they are increasing the number of voters per polling booth and does anyone has objections? They never did that.
How many EVMs are in use per polling booth?
Per polling booth there is one EVM machine. At times there are faulty machines too and they are replaced immediately.
Now, how can that one EVM accommodate 1,500 people from 7 am to 6 pm? You cannot push voters in such large numbers to one polling booth.
I saw the difficulties to voters in Delhi so imagine the problems voters face on a national scale.
People leave their jobs and come for voting and when they see long queues they get discouraged.
Do long queues discourage people to vote?
Absolutely. If there is a long queue people do not want to stand in that queue to vote.
More polling booths result in high voting percentage, and fewer polling booths mean less voting.
Fewer polling booths in any constituency discourages people to go and vote. This is against the voting ethics and voting rights of the people.
Every voter is sovereign in the country.
In Maharashtra we saw successful elections being conducted.
You can conduct good elections if you have 800 to 1,000 people maximum per polling booth. There is VVPAT and voters see that after they vote to know whether their vote has been registered or not.
It takes more than a minute to vote and sometimes it takes two minutes too for a voter to vote. And then there are people of all ages too. People with disabilities who are out to vote.
Tamasha ho jaata hai (drama happens). It is important not to congest polling booths. Decongest. More polling booths leads to more people going out to vote.
