When voters dailled wrong number!

Patna: They dailled wrong number as they were not familiar with the instrument. Several Mahadalit voters of former chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi’s Hindustani Awam Morcha, who went to cast their votes in Bihar, could not recognize the election symbol of the party. They either fumbled at the booths or pushed the wrong symbol.

The election symbol of the HAM is landline telephone set, which many––believe it or not––could not recognize. As the landline phone––unlike the mobile––never became a house-hold item and remained confined to a handful of social elite many Mushar voters, especially the youngsters and women, have never seen it.

A presiding officer deployed in one of the polling booths in Gaya district told BiharTimes that he was amazed at the ignorance of these Mahadalit voters, but was helpless as exercising adult franchise is a secret matter.

 “What is more surprising is that neither Manjhi nor any other party leader raised the issue with the Election Commission at the time of allotment of election symbol early this year,” said a political observer.
“It also reflects the failure of Manjhi to educate his strong sup-port base. Though lantern is ubiquitous and villagers are quite familiar with it, RJD chief Lalu Prasad would in the initial years always carry it to educate his voters. Manjhi and his supporters should have done so, ” said analyst Soroor Ahmed. He went on to add that perhaps the HAM candidates are relying more heav-ily on the Narendra Modi factor and not doing the homework properly.