My first Voting experience

Today was an important day in my life. I voted for the first time. It was an awesome experience. For the first time in my blog I am going to write only about my personal experience and my thoughts about it.


Today morning I woke up at around 7.45. I had actually planned to wake up and go vote at 7 in the morning. But I slept late. Ok, its better I start from yesterday night. After coming from office at 10 in the night. I checked out Election commission's various websites, jagore.com and many other sites to find my polling booth and also the details of my candidates here. I could not find my polling booth, but in Maharashtra CEO's website I found information of my candidates. There were only 3 working links (each on a candidate of my constituency) of the 8 provided , of which all the working links were scanned copies of their application and 2 where in English and the other in Marathi. EC could not take the pain of getting the transcribed to soft copies or even post multiple Language versions of the applications. So I hit the sack at 1 in the night, not even a little bit more educated about the candidates.

In the morning as soon as I got up at 7.45 I just brushed and decided that the first thing I am gonna do is vote. As I was locking the door, I was thinking of 49-0 as I can't decide who is best for my constituency. I just know that the BJP guy is a semi builder (and Mulund is a gold mine for real estate business). The MNS wants people like me out of here and I dunno anything about the congress candidate other than he is an Advocate. I don't even know his name (Congress campaign was literally 0 out here). kewl!

So, now the mission was to find my polling booth. I first went to the nearest polling booth, who redirected me to my actual one. In-front of the booth I tried to find if my name was in the list with two parties who had set up stalls there. Nobody could find me in their electoral roll. Then one of the ladies there suggested me to go in and she was sure the electoral officers will find my name in the list. So after wasting almost an hour I went to the polling booth. There right near the entrance gate there was a huge crowd around a table. I thought that this was the official electoral table to find you booth and number, but before I could enquire somebody redirected me to the polling room.

Now this is where the fun starts. I went in, nobody was there ahead of me, my number was found in less that 2 seconds (Actually I noticed it on the list first). Now my name was called out aloud. All the representatives of various parties ticked my name in their list. Now, I declared 'I want No Vote'. There was sudden silence. Everybody started staring at each other. Nobody first understood. Then I said ' I want no vote as per 49-0 rule'(of course, in Hindi). Then the lady who called out my name said 'oh Ok' and said to the presiding officer that mine is a no vote. Now the problem was that nobody has come across anybody who wanted to cast a no vote. My name was put on register and remarked no vote. I was asked to sign.

Then the presiding officer asked me to wait there for a minute. People started coming in, all staring at me as if I just came out of zoo. All the party guyz were staring at me with those wryly smiles and that expression saying, if the cops were not here, you would have been dead meat.

I also smiled back in my typical 'I just f****** you' style. Then the presiding office checked all the documents he had, and since he could not find anything he called up his boss and asked "what's to be done if somebody wants to vote 49-0'? He was told that signing in the register is enough. Another lady , an electoral officer also crossed checked in their records and said that's enough. (Actually I had found this information on EC's website yesterday night on a 100 page pdf file). The officer said to me that I am free to go(by now it was 5 minutes since I had signed the register), I thanked him, shook hands and walked out. For the first time, I felt proud of myself after a good number of years. Borrowing words from Mrs. Obama . I am for the first time in my adult life proud of my country. Proud of my country because, how ever worse the condition is there is scope for improvement and that it can be done.


But, one point I would like to make is, what about the victimisation of such voters. One party member each of n number of parties was there, what if I am attacked or some kind of revenge is taken? I am not afraid, I am mentally prepared for any such thing. But, is that a reason for deterring people from going to vote and not asking for 49-0 even if they want to? We need to think. Also, is it not illegal to reveal my vote , even a 'No Vote' is a vote. So I have to reveal my vote at the polling booth? Is that not contradictory?

But, I am proud that I did the right thing for my constituency. I know, this does not change anything in today's election. But I am hopeful that in the long run it will. How? I have done 49-0 no vote. Till now we knew that only from forwards and orkut scraps. Well, here is the real proof. It is there. If you feel that there are no right candidates in your constituency, then use this weapon. Not for you, but for others.

(PS: two things, 1. I could not find any document on candidates being disqualified if majority votes are 49-0. 2. My criteria set for a good candidate was just three things. a. educated b.bipartisan and no criminal records c. who has managed to run a proper campaign - nobody was good enough).

We need to make an educated choice for this country and spread awareness. That's what we can do, to repay the martyrs of this great Nation.

VOTE FOR INDIA, VOTE FOR OTHERS.

VOTE IS NOT A RIGHT, VOTE IS A DUTY.

MUMBAI 26/11/2008 , Lets be prepared. Lets choose the right leaders.

JAI HIND