BENGALURU: Shanthakumar will be extremely busy on Thursday, voting day, ferrying voters to the polling station. Nothing unusual. What makes this unique is that he is a grave digger and the voters he will take in his van are residents of the staff quarters on the premises of Kalpalli cemetery. The van is otherwise used to carry abandoned and orphaned dead bodies which are cremated or buried at the cemetery.
“This is the only van we have. It can carry five people,” said Shanthakumar.
Spread over 87 acres, Kalpalli cemetery at Kathalipalya in Sarvagnanagar, is said to be the largest graveyard in the state. There are about 15 houses on the premises where grave diggers, cleaners and other workers stay with their families. Out of 100 residents, there are 60 eligible voters. But they face a problem. Many of them have given the address of their relatives in Kathalipalya or that of the cemetery as their houses are located on the cemetery premises and not considered as valid address. All of them have to go to the government school in Byapanahalli to vote, which is about 2.5 km from the cemetery.
Shanthakumar will ferry aged people, women, expectant mothers, young mothers and physically challenged voters from the cemetery to the polling station.“I make multiple trips from the cemetery to the polling station. It’s quite far to walk, especially in this summer heat.,” he said.
The cemetry gets 10 to 12 bodies for the electric crematorium and three to five for burial per day. “We need people here and at the same time we cannot miss the voting. We will make sure that a couple of people stay back while the others go to vote,’’ he said.Interestingly, neither party workers nor candidates canvass for votes here. Most believe that it is inauspicious to enter a cemetery.