Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Voting Booth Set Up Deep In Gir Forest For One Vote From A Priest

A lone voter walked this year to cast his vote for the Lok Sabha 2024 elections.

Mahant Haridas is a temple priest in Banej, in Gujarat's Gir Somnath district. Since the temple is located deep within the Gir forest, it is hard for him to visit any polling booths during election season.

The government mandates that every person should have a polling booth within 2 kilometres of them to vote. So, the local poll booth officer, along with the election commission, set up a booth within the forest for a single voter.

According to IndiaTimes, a team of 10 people travelled 25 kilometres in the forest to set up the polling booth. This, however, is not unusual for the district.

Till 2019, another priest of the temple, a man by the name of Mahant Bharatdas Darshandas, was given the same facilities for almost two decades. A polling booth would be set up near his temple, and he would walk in the morning to give his vote every single time.

It was in late 2019 that the priest eventually died. At the age of 69, he succumbed to complications related to his kidney in a hospital, as reported by IndianExpress.

Mahant Haridas is the successor to Darshandas, as said in a book 'Leap of Faith'. This is, however, not the only instance of polling officers setting up a booth for a single voter.

On 18 April, another team of polling officers trekked around 40 kilometres in order to set up a voting booth on the borders of Arunachal Pradesh. All for a single voter, a 44-year-old woman by the name of Sokela Tayang, reported NDTV.