Indian Elections - De-mystified (Part I)

by Gaurang Damani

To a common man there are a lot of unknown factors about an Indian election. This article is an attempt to make the election process easily understood.

We can broadly divide the election into 2 processes viz. Campaigning and Voting Day. The timetable for campaigning begins after the candidate (nominated by a party or an Independent) fills up his/ her nomination form. Then a few days are given for the candidate to withdraw the same, after which the campaigning can officially start.

Elections are fought almost entirely on manpower strength (and money power to a certain extent). Each candidate typically has a team which can be classified as:

CAMPAIGN TEAM

Election In-charge

He is the Coach of the team. As soon as the campaigning starts, the candidate is so tied up with meeting people that it is almost impossible for him/ her to put on the thinking cap. This has to be done by the Election or campaign manager.

Sabha In-charge

Public meetings are extremely important to make the message reach the masses. Typically there is a volunteer who handles the organization of the sabha, like stage, chairs, back-drop, invitation cards, etc! This excludes getting the people to the sabha (because most times that is more difficult than arranging the sabha).

Corner meeting In-charge

Street corners are effective spots, utilized by candidates to spread their message, specially in the evenings. This person can also arrange coffee meetings with NGO’s or society’s.

Path yatra In-charge

This is where the candidate walks or takes the “rath” to reach voters. This volunteer decides on the route and which party workers/ volunteers can be involved where. A variant of this is for BMC elections (which are held over smaller areas), the door-to-door path yatra. The rath/ jeep used for the yatra needs to be decorated with election material.

Permissions In-charge

For sabhas, path yatras and corner meetings, permissions are required from authorities like BMC/ Police/ traffic police. Details like location, exact time, number of participants etc have to be provided. It can be a full time job.

Volunteer In-charge

When local citizens or party workers want to get involved in the campaign, someone must guide them what needs to be done (so that the volunteer is not lost).

Material distribution In-charge

This includes pamplets and voting slips.

Treasurer

Handles the money reporting and Petty Cash to volunteers/ party workers

Scheduler

Lot of requests pour in from various NGO’s, society’s to arrange meetings with the candidate. The Scheduler takes care of the candidate’s calendar.

Office In-charge

One of the most important person in the team. Can also double as a scheduler. He acts as a Messenger of important information to the entire team. He also co-ordinates Pamplet printing; Voters slip printing; booth-wise sorting; Furniture of the office; vehicles (campaign and voting day) and Food for the team members. This person also handles other staff members like Typist and Peons.

Reporting to Election Returning Officer

It is quite important the expense reports are submitted to the Returning office on regular basis, as per the schedule provided by Election Commission of India.

Media In-charge

News releases and events calendar have to be sent out everyday in English/ Marathi/ Hindi/ Gujarati etc. by fax. This gives the media an idea on how the candidate is moving and can give adequate coverage if the daily releases are interesting. Photographer/ Video-grapher has to be appointed, who can send out a picture daily to the media offices. A Media file of newspaper clippings can be maintained to be on the lookout for any adverse stories. The media in-charge may also take care of preparing material for printing of pamplets.

VOTING DAY TEAM

Booth In-charge

A booth is a place where the voter actually goes into vote. This volunteer is in-charge of getting voters down to vote. This is the most important function for the voting day.

Polling Agents In-charge

Inside the voting booth (polling booth), each candidate can have a polling agent (list to be submitted a few days before the election day). This polling agent must verify that the EVM (Electronic voting machine) is not tampered with before voting starts. Can also verify the authenticity of the voter, by asking him/her to produce ID, to avoid bogus voting.

Office In-charge

Voters list files to be used on voting day tables are also to be prepared ahead of time. Tables are arranged at street corners (after requisite permissions) to enable voters to find their names on the voting list. Party symbols can not be used here. Food Packets are also arranged to be dropped inside the polling booth. Co-ordination of vehicles for voting day is important.

CELEBRATION-DAY TEAM

All the above included!

If there are any further questions, please drop a line to ‘Friends of BJP’ and we will be glad to compile an FAQ.

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