Once a battlefront, now a bureaucratic break: The changing face of poll duty in Magadh

Gaya: Gen Z may find it hard to believe, but election duty in the 1990s and early 2000s in the Magadh division was regarded as a wartime deployment along a hostile frontier – and not without reason.Heavily armed booth grabbers and the guerrilla tactics of Maoists posed twin threats to the lives of govt employees assigned as presiding officers or polling staff. “There was good reason for the horror and escapism then,” said Vijay Kumar, former deputy development commissioner.Syed Shad Alam, a retired bank officer, added, “Women – mothers and wives – would tie talismans on the arms of their dear ones before they left for duty, especially in Maoist-affected areas.

Moist eyes and worried faces marked the occasion.”Records show that at least two former MPs – Ishwar Chaudhary and Rajesh Kumar – were gunned down by Maoists while campaigning. The then Gaya district magistrate, Chaitanya Prasad, and superintendent of police, Sanjay Singh, narrowly escaped death when the rear wheels of their vehicle got stuck on a mine-filled road during the 2005 assembly elections. On another occasion, two policemen on poll duty died while defusing an IED while a campaign helicopter of the then BJP chief, Venkaiah Naidu, was torched in Gaya’s Barachatti area.

Several polling teams were attacked on way to their stations. This correspondent witnessed one such Maoist assault at Dighasin village in Imamganj constituency during the 2005 elections. As a voter was killed in the firing, polling officials ran for cover while security forces withdrew to a safer spot.Officials recall being inundated with pleas to delete names from election duty rosters on fabricated health grounds.

“Doctors were often pressured to issue fake medical certificates,” said a retired officer. Many employees simply failed to report for duty despite the threat of disciplinary or criminal action.“Till 2010, I was mortally afraid of election duty,” said Vivek Kumar (name changed on request). “Now, many govt employees see it as a welcome break from routine desk work – a mix of work and fun, almost like an official picnic,” he added.Vivek said, “Some hardships like sleeping on the floor, mosquitoes or lack of clean toilets continue, but there is no mortal threat anymore. These are just one-night inconveniences.”Improved road connectivity, better police mobility and the destruction of Maoist bases have changed the situation drastically. In earlier times, polling parties often trekked long distances or rode in bone-rattling tractors to reach remote booths. Today, most polling stations are accessible by motor vehicles.“Things have changed a lot and changed for the better,” Vivek added.