Do you know of a place where voter turnout has been 100% in all elections over the last many years?
If not, let’s tell you about the Banej polling booth in Gujarat’s Gir forest, a booth with just one voter.
The Election Commission of India is working on the philosophy of ‘every vote counts’ and has made all required efforts to reach voters in remote areas.
The Kankai-Banej temple of Gir-Somnath district, located within the Gir Forest is one such place.
The temple Mahant is the only voter at the polling booth.
The Banej Shiv temple which is considered to be an important pilgrim is located in the forest, 25 kilometres from the nearest human-populated region, which is also a very small village, called Jamvala.
Banej is approachable only through rough forest roads, making it a slow and difficult journey to reach the temple.
The area is filled with Asiatic lions and other wild animals, which can be seen also around the road if one travels during the early hours of the day.
The temple premises itself has over 30-40 monkeys that can be seen throughout the day.
The Banej loner polling booth has existed since 2002. Earlier, the Mahant of the temple Bharatdas Darshandas was the only voter in this booth.
After Bharatdas passed away in 2019, his successor Mahant Haridasji Udasin is the lone voter who will vote from this booth.
Despite all the difficulties, the election commission has been performing its duties with discipline during every election, making sure that even a single vote is not left unattended.
This time also a voting booth will be set up in the Gujarati wilderness so that the lone voter can vote on May 5, the voting day in this region.
15 people have been deputed as polling staff for this booth by the Gir-Somnath Collector’s Office.
This includes one presiding officer, two polling booth agents, two police, one CRPF soldier, one peon and other supporting staff.
It is to be noted that both Mahant Bharatdas and Mahant Haridas, have kept their choice of candidate and/or party they vote for, a secret since the beginning.
They have never revealed who they voted for, keeping with the spirit of the secret ballot system in India’s democracy.
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