On the assembly election day (December 7), a debate ensued in my family. Whom to vote? I had posed this question.
Some of the members in my family are ‘party loyalists’. The candidate whom we had supported in the last election was again in the fray, but as an aspirant of a new party. “Why did he quit the party? One who could not remain loyal to his party won’t be loyal to anybody.” I was told.
But he has done us some favours in the last five years, I replied. “He helped us because we gave him votes. It was an even deal,” came the answer.
“Last time, he won the election by a margin of thousands of votes. A dozen votes from our family would not have made any difference. He was powerful. He didn’t need us the way we needed him. Today, he is not that powerful. He needs us. It is time to repay the favours,” I reasoned.
“Even if we all vote for him, he wouldn’t win. His defeat is certain. So why waste our vote?” I was told with a gesture that no more discussion was needed on this topic.
With nobody listening, I tried to comfort myself saying that everybody is entitled to his opinion and one should cast his vote with full freedom.
However, I still believed that it was not about victory or defeat, it was about how we respond in a dilemma situation. In school days, we were told that a man in need is a man indeed. At times, one has to fight a losing battle.
On the way back from the polling booth that afternoon, I asked my wife, “So whom did you vote?”
“To whom you voted,” she said, to my surprise. “Knowing that he will lose?” I asked. “It was time to repay the favours,” she said. And I was happy. Four days later, the election results were announced. The candidate whom I and my wife had voted lost the election. But we felt like a winner.
Mr. Sunil Kumar Kumawat, Assistant Professor, Biyani Group of Colleges
