Elections on a shoestring.

Elections on a shoestring

A day after I joined the mechanical engineering course at KREC Surathkal (now NIT-K) I was ragged by a few seniors. As ragging goes it was comparatively mild. I was only asked to dance. My repertoire was restricted to The Twist which I thought I executed reasonably well.

A week after that were the college students’ union elections. I was requisitioned by the same seniors to dance in front of the hostel blocks to canvass for their candidate. A couple of days later another group asked me to do the same thing. I obliged. Only after I got a veiled warning from seniors did I realize that one cannot campaign simultaneously for rival candidates.

At Surathkal we had a unique election heritage. The candidates either represented South Kanara or North Karnataka without necessarily belonging to these regions. When I stood for Joint Secretary as an Independent I was in a peculiar situation. I had no one to campaign for me as all the students were aligned to the main parties. Further, I had no funds for publicity material. Eventually, a couple of my class mates helped me with some hand painted posters to be pasted on the hostel walls. To every one’s surprise I won by three votes.

Later I took a transfer to NIE, Mysore. In my final year a class mate, who later became a Commodore in the Navy, persuaded me to stand for President of the college students’ association. But the eternal problem of funds, or the lack of it, still followed me. I couldn’t tap my father who had recently retired. My campaign manager became panicky as D-day approached. There were posters and banners projecting my rival all over the place. My mother fished out some old white bed sheets still carrying stains of my young nephew’s lack of bladder control. My lone supporter borrowed blue ink and brush and produced some banners out of them.

I combined Nehru’s ‘Tryst with Destiny’ address with a quotation from Kennedy’s famous speech and modified them. I stood at the college gate on Election Day and exhorted, “Freedom and power bring responsibility. The responsibility rests upon this assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign students of NIE. Ask not what your college can do for you; ask what you can do for your college.” On cue my campaign manager flashed a small banner that read “Vote for a President whom you can trust. A President who will work for you.” I won by  thirty two votes.

After the results a whole horde of students wanted a victory party from me. Unfortunately, my financial position did not allow that. Eventually, the owner of Ganesh Lunch Home opposite the college was persuaded to sponsor the coffee/tea/ragi malt on the promise that the students’ association would order snacks from him at its monthly meetings.