Experience of ‘Contesting’ an Election

In this charged-up electoral atmosphere, my mind today suddenly reinvigorated a memory from 22 years ago.

I was a student of class 7 then, studying in Vivekananda Kendra Vidyalaya, Tinsukia.

That was the year we were introduced to the Indian Political System as a part of our Social Studies (Civics) syllabus.

We were taught how elections are conducted, how votes are cast, what is the correct way to cast vote using a ballot paper and other related aspects.

While teaching us the subject, our teacher (whose name I am unable to recollect) decided to hold a mock election in the class.

I guess we were 33 students in our section at that time. Out of these, four students were selected as candidates (2 boys and 2 girls). I was one of them. I don’t remember how the four of us were selected; neither do I remember who the other three ‘candidates’ were.

On the day of the ‘polling’, our teacher brought a ballot box made of cardboard and print outs of voter slips with our names on it. She then pasted an eraser to the end of a small stick and we had to press the eraser against the inkpad and then mark our vote against the name of our choice of ‘candidate’.

The ‘ballot box’ was kept on a table at the corner of the classroom.

Roll number-wise each student went and cast their respective votes.

After the ‘voting’ was complete, our teacher counted the votes. She then went and wrote the number of votes secured by the four candidates.

I don’t remember the exact number of votes the four of us got, but I remember that I secured more than 20 votes and was declared the winner.

That particular ‘victory’ somehow put a sense of political consciousness within me.

I got interested in politics and elections since then and have been following electoral developments both within and outside the country since then.

And with every passing election in India, I have realized that voter awareness have been increasing gradually.

Though people still get influenced by emotional gimmicks and electoral rhetoric, serious issues like unemployment, development projects, infrastructure, etc, are now considered by the voters before casting their vote.

As India goes on to elect a new set of representatives, let us all swear an oath that we all will vote based on the credibility and ability of a candidate and not based on that person’s caste or religion.