It all started on April 17 (T-2), when Dr Tamilisai’s husband Dr. Soundararajan visited our apartment and one of her team members remarked that they need to find a “booth agent” for our booth at Saligramam that had voters from my apartment and few other apartments. One of the fellow residents (he was formerly a District level functionary of BJP at Namakkal) asked me, if I am game and I accepted with no idea of what it entails. He also said that the team will train me and I can go to the booth by around 9 am and be there till around 6:30-7:00 PM. Sounded like a regular day job (be there before NSE opens and be out after EOD processes and reconciliations by 6:00 PM).
The next day I was given the details of a functionary and was asked to reach out. As I do usually, I sent a WhatsApp message asking when should I call. No response from him. The post markets on Thursday called him to check and he shared the office location. When I went there, him and his team was sweating it out getting kits ready for the entire Assembly Segment. Handed over my photo etc., for them to prepare my credentials and went back at 11 pm to collect the kit, that was supposed to contain a part seal to affix on laquer, a writing pad, a notepad, writing instruments, a numbering sheet and the voter list.
In hindsight I should have checked the kit for its contents. Every booth were assigned two volunteers to relieve each other and alternate during the polls. My fellow volunteer at the booth had taken with him the voter list. The folks at the office were quite pressed for time and briefly explained my role and repeated a few times to collect the summary form (17Cin original. They were racing against time to find volunteers to some booths. Being the first timer it was overwhelming and I went in as I went into my Heat and Mass Transfer exam in 1997 (I aced it with 95%). Assumed everything would be there and came back and slept well. My biggest fear was that I will over sleep!
Now to the D day!
The alarm rang at 500. Snoozed the alarm and woke up at 530. Reached my assigned booth at 550. There were 5 booths in the polling station. The officers had already set up the EVM. Battery driven. Handed over my credentials and took up a seat. There were 6 other polling agents. 1 each for ADMK and DMK and 4 representing Independent candidates. My presence did surprise some of them. I was quite surprised that there were agents representing Independent and was asking myself how they managed to get 1600+ poll agents (answer to this later).
There was a mock poll to check EVM and it was tested, cleared and made ready for real polls. Just in time at 7:00 AM. The next 11 hours was exciting.
Voters were already queued up. The officers and agents were ready. There was delay of 20-30 secs to open. A senior gentlemen who was second in the queue, probably a retired person from Mumbai that was used to traveling by the Churchgate – Andheri 6:59 fast local became restless at 7:00.
Polling was brisk and fast. Our booth had the longest queue in the station. Looking at the nos and the pace, think the peak capacity is around 90-100 votes / hour / EVM, while Time & motion study may suggest a bit higher. It takes around 25-30 secs for recording a vote, from the Polling officer clearing you to vote to him clearing the next person. Cannot stuff 1000 ballots in 1 hour as in the past! Now you know the reason for the clamour of physical ballots.
At 8:30 AM, the fellow polling agents asked around for breakfast and one of the agents went out and got the food for everyone. Usually my first meal is at around 1 pm (intermittent fasting), hence did not have breakfast. And around 930 or so, the BJP candidate visited the booth to check if everything was in order. By 12 noon, the crowds started thinning down. Asked one of the fellow agents on how much they expect. His answer was – it was around 40-45% in 2021.
Post noon, the activity levels dropped further and the agents asked around on who wants what for lunch. One of the senior citizen volunteer from Tamil Nadu BJP came in to check and got me curd rice for lunch! Curd rice never felt this yummy! It was 2 pm and it became silent! By now, everyone was relaxed and were checking for trends in the other booths within the station. Ours was the highest – both in numbers and percentage (more on this later). One of the agents went out to vote at her polling station and came back to say the turnout at her booth was abysmal and people were just lazing around!
During the day, there was tea, nannari sarbath, butter milk (twice) and then a coffee at 4 pm – for everyone. The initial tension gave way to a friendly banter and they were pulling each other’s legs (Akka – Anna – Thambi etc). All of us started talking. Then I realized that all the agents live almost in the same street and they knew each other very well. Each of them were doing different tasks and they seem to work in groups tacitly (more on this later). One was marking Male / Female, one of them just ticking off names in booklet. They had different formats with carbon copies and it was brilliant. The formats were tearable booklets (Serial Number; Slip number, Male/ Female). They were quite fine sharing the formats.
Every hour or so, a Lead agent (more about him later) comes around to collect the tearble sheets and check the voting trend. While the main copy goes to the central data centre of the party, the carbon copy goes to the team waiting outside the station, where a second team checks the list to see, if there is some one that is “expected” to vote has not turned up. Apparently, he passes that info to someone in the locality to mobilise voters that have not turned up yet. This is in essence the election day machinery that works like a precision m/c. Looking at the numbers – 2 agents per booth makes it 10 agents per station (assuming 5 booths) + tacit coop with independents + party workers outside polling station on either side of road. So say around 25-30 per station per party. If you have 400 polling stations, it means around 10000-12000 or even more workers on polling day alone for a single major party in a single parliamentary constituency to cover 20 lakh voters.
This is the machinery that needs to be replicated! In a state that has 50% swing voters, you need this to push the voters to the booth! Back to the “Lead Agent” – He is a seasoned pro and had seen elections for 25-30 years and had stories from a 1990 elections when the booth had a repoll!. He is the most important person for a party inside the polling station – someone the rookie agent looks upto when there is an issue inside the booth. On the agent of independent candidates, maybe they may not be really independent candidates. If you are new party in the race, you have limited personnel, here is a #jugaad model. A constituency with ~20l voters in 6 assembly segments has approximately around 300-350 polling stations, with each station having around 5-6 booths for a total of around ~1600+/- booths. [I have no idea on the actuals]
You do not need 10000, you can do it with 4000 and mobile phones to find a voter’s booth & serial number. But they need to work a couple days longer. Sheer presence outside a polling station will comfort your supporter. While it will be nice to have the agents know the voters, it may not be required as I learnt a trick or two from the experienced pros. When the Polling Officer calls out a serial number and name, the “pro agent” calls out the name from the list at a random moment. If the voter does not respond to the name – it’s a red flag. Street smart!
A booth agent has the right to question the identity of the voter. One of the other party agents asked me “Enna sir ungala kandukkavae maatendraanga” [No one is taking care of you]. Now that’s a psy-war that can put one down! With me being an unknown person to the party folks and a last minute #upma agent, no one except folks from my apartment spoke to me (and I could not identify the party folks given that I parachuted in T-2, a morning huddle with fellow booth agents could have helped). So if you are a rookie agent, ensure you meet up the other volunteers before the polling starts in the morning.
While BJPs marketing, leadership of Shri Narendra Modi and charisma and aggression of Shri Annamalai has created the product and branding, election day management will be the equivalent of Sales & Distribution, the last mile connect to the voter to get them to vote. The difference between BJP outside Tamil Nadu and in Tamil Nadu is the last mile connect to voter. I hope Phase II for Annamalai is creating this connect! Build or Acquire the last mile connect. The grassroot volunteers were available post Jayalalithaa’s period looking for a leader and EPS has consolidated his hold over the party human resources between 2017 – 2021.
Now an electoral loss to EPS in 2024 will make that available in pockets and BJP should not hesitate to induct last mile functionaries (the Distributor/ Departmental store equivalent of FMCG). 2026 is going to be tougher as its not a vote for Modi, but will be a call for double-engine government in Tamil Nadu! When the polling ended – the head agent’s body language was not too great or he is a good poker player!
The way I see the turnout – while there is no big change in the numbers over 2019, the booth level data may tell you a different story. Candidates have that data and their body language will tell you!
Some notes for polling agents in future:
1. While its good to use tech and printers, nothing beats the muscle memory of writing it down. Write the name and s. no by hand in a booth slip. When the voter walks in – you may remember faster and better.
2. Ensure the booth slip has the image of the EVM unit with the name and Serial Number of the candidate. A few seniors struggled to locate! 
3. Meet the fellow polling agents in the AM before the process starts
End of the day, the officials displayed the total votes, sealed with laquer and affixed the official seal, handed over the summary form. I submitted the form at the party office – took a few pens as souvenir and walked back home with a unique experience. When I reached home, my wife had a long list of things to do that I have been putting off citing lack of time due to work – If you can take out 15 hours on a Friday (NSE was open), you should have time to do this list too!
(This article is based on Vijayanand’s X post on the same)
Vijayanand Venkataraman is a Chartered Financial Analyst.
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