Lok Sabha elections 2019: For party volunteers, a 10-day vigil outside strongrooms ends - Hindustan Times
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Lok Sabha elections 2019: For party volunteers, a 10-day vigil outside strongrooms ends

New Delhi | ByAbhishek Dey
May 23, 2019 06:16 AM IST

“Who knows what is being done to the EVMs inside. But, at least on our part, we are doing our best to protect them,” said Sandeep Tyagi, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) worker.

Around midnight, a mini truck stopped near the gate of the counting centre in North East Delhi’s Nand Nagri. Within seconds, it was surrounded by a group of men who asked the driver to show what he was ferrying. The driver obliged. It emerged that the truck was loaded with air coolers meant for the centre for March 23, the counting day for the 2019 general elections.

Volunteers of different political parties on vigil outside a counting centre.(Sanjeev Verma/HT)
Volunteers of different political parties on vigil outside a counting centre.(Sanjeev Verma/HT)

When two men in the group insisted that the coolers should also be opened up for a thorough check, the policemen deployed in the counting centre intervened. One of them asked if any of the men in the group was an engineer. As they responded in the negative, the policemen cleared the truck and let it enter the high-security premises.

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“Who knows what is being done to the EVMs inside. But, at least on our part, we are doing our best to protect them,” said Sandeep Tyagi, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) worker who was one of the men who stopped the truck, as the group headed towards a makeshift tent on the pavement.

As opposition parties raised concerns on Tuesday about the protocol related to transfer and storage of electronic voting machines (EVM) in several parts of the country after the polls, political parties in Delhi responded to the tension by deploying round-the-clock vigil outside the high-security counting centres in the city.

The leaders of 22 political parties had sent a memorandum on Tuesday, urging the Election Commission of India to ensure that tallying of VVPAT slips is done before the counting begins, which was eventually turned down by the poll watchdog on Wednesday. However, it did little to assuage the fears of the party workers.

“We are keeping tab on news from all across India and things look serious. The former president of India has expressed concerns too,” said Hallan Chaudhary, a Congress worker in East Delhi who was deployed outside the counting centre entrance in the Commonwealth Games Village.

Chaudhary referred to Pranab Mukherjee expressing concern at allegations of EVM tampering on Tuesday, which he had described as “tampering of voters’ verdict” in a statement issued by his office and said that the “onus of ensuring institutional integrity” lies with the election commission.

Unlike the group in Nand Nagri, which comprised AAP workers, 36-year-old Chaudhary and his team were seated in an SUV in which they were frequently being served tea and biscuits by party workers. Around 1 am, a group of younger party members arrived on motorbikes and greeted Chaudhary, who is also a functionary of the Youth Congress.

The people deployed on these vigils came from different quarters of society. Among the people Hindustan Times met in the intervening night between Tuesday and Wednesday were a lawyer, a chartered accountant, a jeweller, a builder, a security guard, a sales agent with a beauty product company and a cable operator among others. Most of them go for their jobs in the day.Starting Monday, they have been spending nights outside the counting centres.

While it is primarily the opposition parties that have been spearheading protests against alleged breach of protocol pertaining to EVM transportation and storage, there was a lone BJP supporter on vigil outside a counting centre in South Delhi’s Siri Fort.

“We have trust in the election commission. For us, it is a formality. Our political opponents have organised vigils. So, we should be present too in order to keep a check on their party workers,” said 26-year-old Kusumshankar Kunwar, a BJP worker, who shared space in the same makeshift tent with two AAP workers and often exchanged glances. Around 2am, Kunwar gave up and dozed off in his chair.

There are seven counting centres in Delhi and each of them have multiple layers of security, which comprises officers deployed by the election commission, central security forces and the police, said Delhi’s chief electoral officer Ranbir Singh. He, however, did not comment on the vigil outside the counting centres organised by the political parties.

Political volunteers are not given access to the high-security premises, senior election officials said.

But the night-long vigil means the volunteers are losing out on family time.

“My wife is unhappy but my children understand that I am doing something for protecting the democracy and which will have impact on their future. I have told my wife that she can have all my time after May 23,” said Anuj Dedha, 33, who stood outside a centre in Nand Nagri. His team mate Amjad Khan too is facing difficulties managing time between caring for his mother, who underwent a surgery for kidney stone on Monday, and the vigil.

For Kunwar, it was some sort of a personal obligation towards a BJP MP who helped with his relative’s cancer treatment. “I am glad that I am paying back in the form of a service, which ultimately contributes to protecting the democracy,” said Kunwar, who is a migrant from Bihar’s Gopalganj and works at an export unit in Okhla industrial area.

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