I am not yet an adult, and hence not a voter, according to the law of the land. But I have witnessed general election scenes in my life. During the last Assembly Election in our locality, I saw the activities in two booths that were set side by side near our house by two particular political parties. I found there some of the young boys of our locality enthusi­astically busy in canvassing for votes in favour their respective leaders.

My elder brother went to cast his vote by noon, but he returned disappointed as his vote was already cast in his name by some faked voter. The canvassers were found excited briefing certain men and women who were outsiders, and did not belong to our locality. Those were, no doubt, the faked voters who were hired by the party men for casting proxy votes.

In the afternoon, the candidate, who is a standing M L.A. of the locality, came in a white car to inspect the situation. Most of the workers in the booth surrounded his car and apprised him of the current position of voting. He came out of his car to encourage his canvassers. His assistant handed over a bundle of currency for the lunch of the boys. After a few minutes, he left.

Then came the opposition leader and went near his party’s booth. He was also found to behave almost in the same manner. But his financial position did not seem so bright like the former one.

ADVERTISEMENTS:

He had handed over some lunch packets to his workers, at which the latter did not look happy. Perhaps they expected cash money from their leader. He also left in a minute.

Towards the closure of the voting time, we heard sud­denly a shocking noise of a couple of hand-bombs’ bursting near the polling station. The policemen chased some miscre­ants who ran fast and disappeared in the twinkling of an eye.

Later, it came to our ear that some party workers entered the polling station in that turmoil and snatched away the voting papers and stamped them in favour of their candi­date at random. It is not known how much of this rumour is correct, but it is true that their candidate, the standing M.L.A., had later been announced to have won the seat.

In a democratic country, a voter is expected to use his discretion. The practice of rigging in elections must be stopped by all means, and the right of a genuine voter must be protected for the purpose of healthy election.