BENGALURU: One vote can make all the difference, said former Chief Election Commissioner S Y Qureshi, while explaining how a Congress candidate lost a chance of becoming chief minister of Rajasthan as his wife did not vote, although the party had emerged as the single largest party.
Delivering the keynote address at the symposium on ‘Electoral Reforms and Constitutional Ideals’ organised by Forum for Democracy and Communal Amity - Karnataka, in collaboration with the Department of Social Work, St Joseph’s College (Autonomous) in city on Saturday, Qureshi narrated a ‘moral story’ that taught three lessons during the Rajasthan assembly elections in 2008.
He said, “When I was in the Election Commission, president of Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee C P Joshi was defeated by a single vote. Joshi, from Nathdwara in Rajsamand district, was the front-runner for the Chief Minister’s post. But he could not become one as he lost the elections by a single vote. After the counting, Joshi asked the Returning Officer to recount the postal ballots, assuming that there could be some human error. It was done in 20 minutes and the result did not change. Again, Joshi asked them to retabulate the total of each machine. The Returning Officer did that too but the result was same.”
Then, former Chief Justice of India M N Venkatachalaiah, who was present in the function, reminded him that Joshi’s wife had not cast her vote in that election. Qureshi remarked that he had heard about it. “Out of curiosity, I called Joshi over phone and asked him about it. Then Joshi said, “Yes, it is true. My wife and daughter had gone to a temple, so they could not vote’.”
Qureshi then said, “This incident taught three lessons - that every vote counts; you cannot take your family for granted and the most important one is that on polling day, the polling station is the temple,” Qureshi said.
“Even for a single vote, the ECI had set up a polling booth in Gir forest in Gujarat and for just two votes in Arunachal Pradesh on the India-China border,” he added.