abhishek n. chinnappa

Every Vote Matters

The 2024 general election in India -  spanning over six weeks from April 19 to June 1 - was the biggest the world has ever seen and was arguably the most important in Indian history.

In the previous election, in 2019, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 303 seats, and the broad coalition of parties it is in, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), emerged victorious with 352 seats, the most a single party has won since the Rajiv Gandhi-led Indian National Congress (INC) swept the polls with 414 seats in 1984.

In this election, which was the 18th in independent India, the INC, the largest opposition party, and more than a dozen regional parties joined hands to form the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) to regain the idea that India once was - secular, pluralistic, and culturally harmonious.

Voting took place in different regions of India on seven polling days: April 19, April 26, May 7, May 13, May 20, May 25, and June 1. 969 million of the population of 1.4 billion were eligible to vote. The multi-phased polling allowed the government to deploy tens of thousands of troops to maintain peace, prevent violence and transport election officials and voting machines to their respective polling stations.

The election results were announced on June 4.

According to Para 3 of Chapter II of the Handbook for Returning Officers, in the Conduct of Elections Rules, 1961, that came into force on April 25, 1961, polling stations should be set up in such a manner that ordinarily no voter is required to travel more than two km to reach his polling station. To fulfil its obligations of ensuring that every eligible citizen votes in the election, the Election Commission of India (ECI) takes extensive measures to set up polling stations in a few unusual places across the country.

Showing remarkable commitment to ensuring democratic participation, a polling station temporarily mushrooms deep within the Gir National Park in the western state of Gujarat, the last natural stronghold of the Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica), to enable a single voter to cast his ballot.

Tucked away 25 kilometres from Jamvala, along a rugged and dusty unpaved road, lies a remote forest outpost manned by nine Gujarat Forest Department personnel. Just a stone’s throw away from the outpost, on the banks of the Machchundri River teeming with marsh crocodiles (Crocodylus palustris) languidly swimming lies an assortment of new structures abutting old ones in which lives a Hindu priest, along with his aide and cook. This is the hamlet of Banej.

To get to Banej, one has to drive through dense forests that are home to Asiatic lions seeking respite from the scorching summer sun under the shade of the Indian Tragacanth (Sterculia urens) and Amaltas (Cassia fistula). Anxious nilgai (Boselaphus tragocamelus) and Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor) graze dry stalks of grass, while the Northern plains grey langur (Semnopithecus entellus) keep watch from tree tops, acting as sentinels against sneak attacks from hungry lions or the ghost-like presence of the elusive Indian leopard (Panthera pardus fusca). The India peafowl (Pavo cristatus) are largely unmindful of the dangers and focus their attention on attracting potential mates. 

Banej poses a challenge for these forest personnel due to its remoteness and rough terrain.

Five polling officials, accompanied by two armed security personnel bounced around uncomfortably inside a weathered school bus painted yellow, departing from Una, the taluk centre for the newly-formed Gir Somnath district. With them is an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and a Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machine enclosed in their hard cases along with their personal belongings. The security personnel had their hawkish gazes fixed on the hard cases and zealously guarded them, their rifles an intimidating presence.

While being deep in the Gir National Park may hold an allure, polling officials I spoke with didn’t sound very enthused about being posted there. I posed this to an official who asked their identity be not revealed. ‘It’s nice to be here, but I am conflicted to be away from my family with no mobile connectivity.” They acknowledge the threat posed by wildlife, especially at dusk, ‘Thankfully it’s only for a day…’ they tailed off with a sigh of relief while speaking for themselves.

On the morning of the election, the priest offered prayers to a faux bejewelled black idol of the goddess Patala Bhairavi. He lit a fire, offered flowers, and prostrated in front of the idol which has a sword in one hand and a severed head in the other. Her adornments conceal the other two arms.

He offered sweetened cups of chai and spoke with the small clutch of local media who had shown up. He explained the importance of voting as a television screen overhead beamed visuals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his aide Amit Shah waving to corralled crowds after casting their votes in Ahmedabad.

His forehead smeared with sandalwood paste mixed with turmeric, the priest accompanied by two of his aides arrived at the polling booth under the expanse of a clear blue sky. His orange robes were in stark contrast to the brown dry scrub landscape of Gir. As he arrived, the priest was welcomed warmly by the forest department personnel, who presented him with a sapling of Indian jujube (Ziziphus mauritiana). He greeted the security personnel who ushered him in with a reverence only reserved for holy men that is mostly seen in the foothills of the Himalayas.

The priest stepped into the polling station and graciously greeted the three polling officials seated on one side of the spartan room, while the booth presiding officer sat on the other side of the room. He handed his voter ID card to the officer, who referenced it with a voter roll list in front of him, the roll just had one name - Mahant Haridasji Udasin.

Udasin moved to the second officer and signed against his name in the ledger. He bowed in front of the officer and proceeded to the next officer. He placed his left palm on the table, hastily wrapped in a white cloth while the officer dipped a brush into a 10 ml phial of indelible ink and marked the priest’s index finger. The officer guided Udasin to the polling compartment who seemed a bit daunted by the presence of the media.

A faint beep sounded from behind the steel grey corrugated flex-board secret compartment. Udasin had cast his ballot and appeared to show his index finger marked with ink containing silver nitrate which has been used in Indian elections since 1962. Stepping out, he posed for photographs and engaged with the media, reemphasising the importance of the election. He expressed humility at the arrangements made to facilitate just one person’s vote, emphasising the importance of every individual’s participation in the democratic process.

After Udasin cast his vote and returned to his shrine, there was certainty that there would be nobody else to vote. However, polling officials had to keep the station open as election regulations dictate that the polling station must remain open until 6 PM. Polling officials sealed the EVM and VVPAT machines and signed off on their ledger indicating that voting had concluded.

With the summer sun unrelenting, the polling officials joined the forest department personnel under the shade of a ficus (Ficus benghalensis) which had its trunk painted red and white and mused at the state of the media in the country amongst a host of other things. Some were keen on seeing a lion but were told by the forest department personnel that lions typically don’t emerge during daylight hours.

As the sun descended towards the horizon, spindly silhouettes of leafless trees poked the sky that had turned into vibrant hues of orange and purple. With the light fading, the EVM and VVPAT machines were carefully loaded onto the bus, under the watchful gaze of the rifle-toting security personnel. Goodbyes were bid to the forest department personnel who had played host to an otherwise impossible situation and the election officials set off on another uncomfortable drive to Una.

The machines were securely stored in a strong room until June 4th, where the expectation was that there would be a favourable outcome for the BJP, just as Udasin had hoped for when he cast his ballot in Banej. But the people of India had other ideas in mind and upended the party by not giving the Modi-led BJP an outright majority in the new parliament.

These images were shot on assignment for Getty Images in April, May and June 2024.