On the eve of every election, the villagers of Ranawade in Maharashtra sit down to decide who they will vote for
THE bamboo barricades are up in front of the village temple. Soon, colourful tarpaulins will sweep over the top, in time for the auspicious festival of Akshay Tritiya on April 27. But five days before that, Ranawade village witnessed another important gathering: one that happens only once in five years. On April 22, the eve of polling day for Raigad district, about 300 of Ranawade’s population of 600 came together to discuss and decide on the candidate who would get the vote of the entire village.

For the farmers of Ranawade village, it’s a practice as old as the elections themselves and one they are proud of, even if it may seem to be an aberration from the basic concept of a democracy. “It’s a practice started by our forefathers and one that makes complete sense to us. Deep down, we think politicians have their own agendas and don’t think they can do much for our village. Whatever progress we have made is because of our own efforts and the only thing we guard zealously is our unity. We don’t want any politician to take that away from us. In the surrounding villages, you will find that 15 houses belong to the Congress, 20 to the Shiv Sena and so on. We don’t want politics to divide us, hence this decision to support only one person. The night before voting, we all sit together—men and women—and decide. This year too, on April 23, 290 of us voted for the person we had decided on,” says Pandurang Ambekar, deputy sarpanch of the village. The village is part of Raigad constituency and has some heavy weights in the fray—A.R. Antulay, Suresh Prabhu and Anant Geete.

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