While many people could not vote (names missing from voter lists, wrong addresses) and CEC Navin Chawla nearly didn’t, some have been lucky enough to ink their fingers twice.
Anita Kumar, who lives on the Delhi-Faridabad border, got herself registered twice — at her marital and parental homes — and voted as many times.”I voted for my favourite party both times. I have also earned twice the money, which parties were offering for my votes,” said Kumar.
It’s the same story for many people living in the borders and NCR regions. While some do it for the kicks, for others it’s a good chance to make money. “The police cannot verify every house, so those of us living near the border do it all the time,” said Ravi Yadav. “I got liquor from one party, and money from another.”
The problem is that these people know what legal problem they can get into but still do it year after year. “I know that voting in two places is illegal, but I wasn’t aware of the rules when I first did it,” says Tilak Raj, who lives near the Delhi Ghaziabad border. “It hardly makes any difference, because this is the third time I have voted like this and no legal action has been taken.”
According to its practitioners, multiple voting is quite simple. “First, you go and vote in Delhi. Remove the ink with a diluter and then go and vote wherever you’ve registered again. The authorities don’t get to know and there’s hardly any risk,” said Nitish Bhagat, who stays near the Delhi-Gurgaon border. Most of these people are able to vote more than once because the booths are quite a distance from each other so there’s no chance of anybody recognising them.
