According to Section 49P of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, I can give my vote through “Tendered Ballot Paper” and then my vote will be counted as “Tendered Vote.”
photo of voter slip
My name is Sandhya. I went to cast my vote at my Polling booth number 69 which comes in Palam constituency, Dwarka, South Delhi. As soon as I gave my Voter ID card for verification, the polling officer said “someone already voted in your place.” And I was just watching, dumbstruck, wondering what’s going on. He was just staring at the voter paper slip.
After that he called the Presiding Officer whose name was Jeet Abhisek. The Polling Officer didn’t seem to know what to do. The Presiding Officer somehow tried to solve the solution & said he will make sure that my vote will be counted.
He knew that if someone has voted at my place, so according to Section 49P of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, I can give my vote through “Tendered Ballot Paper” and then my vote will be counted as “Tendered Vote.”
After querying with his seniors, the officer brought ‘Tendered Ballot Paper’ and gave me the stamp with the paper list which had the names of the candidates with their electoral symbols. I cast my vote, folded the tendered paper & handed it over to the Presiding Officer.
At last, I felt like I had cast my vote.
I left the polling booth. After half an hour, the Presiding Officer sent someone to my home with a number on the paper slip. Since I was travelling at the time, my brother called me and said, he received a slip & number and I need to call on that number “nhi toh mera vote nhi maana jaayega” (otherwise my vote won’t be counted).
I hurriedly called on the same number. It was the Presiding Officer’s number. He said, “you need to come again at the polling booth to sign on “Tendered Ballot Paper” form which shows that someone already voted in your name”. The form had separate columns for the voter name, my serial number, person who voted on my name, signature and thumbs up.
And at last the Presiding officer said, “now your vote is complete. Don’t worry tumhara vote zaroor count hoga (don’t worry, your voted will definitely be counted).”
Some of the gaps I found during this whole process – first, the Polling Officer tried to hide the fact that someone voted at my place and they cut my serial number even though I didn’t vote. Second, officers didn’t have proper information about what they should do.
But with all said and done, the Presiding Officer did a great job. He made sure that my vote would be counted.
But for now my vote will not be counted as the main vote. I’m just challenging the other person who voted in my place. I hope that my vote will be sent with a proper seal on it and gets counted.
‘यदि आप हमको सपोर्ट करना चाहते है तो हमारी ग्रामीण नारीवादी स्वतंत्र पत्रकारिता का समर्थन करें और हमारे प्रोडक्ट KL हटके का सब्सक्रिप्शन लें’
