In election booth is a temporary arrangement made in a place at the time of an election. Since India is a democracy, the election is a very important organ of the system, and an event in which the whole country participates.

As India is a vast country there are thousands of booths established in the length and breadth of the country and, the scene at every booth is more or less the same.

In an election there are basically four participants, they are, the political parties, party workers, the Government machinery and the public, i.e. the common men.

At every booth these four are represented and the scenario is the same. An election booth is a very important place at the time of election as; this is the place where people come to vote for their preferences for those they want to see at the helm of affairs.

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Near every booth, every party has its skeleton office where its workers are seen mobilising the public. It is here that the seniors of the party also come off and on to understand and study the trend.

Last year I had the opportunity of going with my parents when they went to cast their votes. Just as we came near the booth, what was so obvious was that, there could be trouble.

There were a large number of policemen standing near the booth and there were also some police vehicles with more force. I was a little scared to see the police arrangement but my father told me that, it was done to prevent any untoward incident and that, there was nothing to be frightened of.

At the entry we were guided be people to where the booth was. At the booth itself, there were a number of Government officers on the job, and all of them had long lists of names. The officer in charge found the names of my parents in the list and let them go in one by one to cast their votes. I was not allowed to go in with them as; I was not to vote, as I was not of age.

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At the booths they allow voters to go one by one as, it is supposed to be secret ballot. There is strict vigil at the booth yet, we often hear of wrong doings at some booths. There is often rigging at booths bribing for votes and sometimes it also happens that, people who come for voting are told that, their vote has already been cast. These points to irregular voting.

At the booth there is absolute silence and the hush-hush affair yet, at times we hear that bogus votes have been cast. All this shows that, there is a lot of bungling in the lists of voters prepared for, if a person has not come how is his vote cast by someone else? All this must be happening with the help of bribe money changing hands.

It was a lovely and interesting sight to see the booth and all the arrangements made there. There is police stationed at the booth, there are officers stationed, vigil is kept and only one individual at a time enters the booth, yet, there is a lot of rigging, lot of bugling and huge number of bogus votes.

The booth is a place of great interest and concern to all, from early morning till 5.00 p.m. the time allotted for the voting process. At each and every booth there is a beeline of voters throughout the day.

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The long serpentine line at the booth when seen gives the impression that, our people are really very much interested in the process of voting. In turn, it also shows that, they are really serious about who should be at the helm of affairs of the country.

However, at the end of the day, there are announcements of rigging, booth capturing and bogus votes. Re-voting is announced at some booths. This shows that votes can be sold and bought. We only then get a true picture of the Indian democracy.

The booth is just a place to go to vote but, what all happens and can happen there shows the sum total of the strength of our democracy .This experience at the election booth was very interesting though I was not allowed inside, at least I was able to see the area around, and the arrangements made out there.