Making a mark on Indian electorate

Nearly 20m bottles of indelible ink have been supplied for the elections

By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi

As millions of Indians visit polling centres across the length and breadth of the world's largest democracy to cast their ballots, one company in the southern state of Karnataka has been leaving a mark on each voter.

The state-run Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited has manufactured millions of bottles of indelible ink which is used to dye the tip of the voter's fingers to prevent them from re-voting.

The firm, which is the sole supplier of the indelible ink in India, has been providing it for all parliamentary, state assembly and local elections in India since 1962.

"We have supplied nearly 20 million bottles of indelible ink for the current elections," the company's managing director KJ Suresh told the BBC on the phone from the southern city of Mysore.

Mr Suresh refuses to divulge the "secret ingredients" which go into making the ink.

"About 100 employees worked overtime for 40 days, mixing various chemicals and dyes to produce the purple ink for the vote," he says.

The concoction is supplied in phials of 10ml each and costs 64 rupees ($1.27) per bottle.

'Unique'

In the last parliamentary elections in 2004, Mr Suresh says they supplied 160,000 bottles of 5ml each.

"But this time, the size of the bottles has doubled because the Election Commission has changed the marking rules," he says.

Earlier, the ink was used to make a dot on the voter's index finger, now each voter gets a line which covers the entire nail and a bit of the finger too.

The ink mark prevents the voter from re-voting

"We feel we are a very important part and parcel of Indian democracy. It's a unique product with which we are reaching the maximum number of people. It's a great honour for us," Mr Suresh says.

The ink bottles are handed over to the chief election officers of various states.

Elections began in India on 16 April and more than 714m voters are eligible to vote over five phases till 13 May.

The number of bottles sent to each state depends on the size of the electorate there so understandably the largest consignment of 286,000 phials has been sent to India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh; while the island of Lakshadweep has received only 120 phials, the smallest consignment.

The firm also supplies the indelible ink to countries like Nepal, Cambodia, Turkey, South Africa and Nigeria.

For the recent South African elections, the company had exported 120,000 phials of ink to Johannesburg, Mr Suresh says.