Bhopal voters win diamond rings in a Lucky Draw event to boost voter turnout

Officials in Bhopal had organized a lucky draw to attract more voters and increase voter turnout

Bhopal:

To tackle the problem of low voter turnout in the elections, officials in the Bhopal Lok Sabha constituency came up with an innovative solution.

They stated that a lucky draw would take place every two hours on election day, during which attractive rewards would be given to those who come out to vote.

Four lucky winners received diamond rings as the grand prize. But the whole exercise turned out to be a series of comical mistakes.

Initially, the rings came in small boxes labeled ‘Lucky Jewellers, Bairagarh’. When NDTV spoke to the owner, Mahesh Dadlani, he said that they do not sell diamonds. The winners confirmed that they had received rings made of “American diamonds”, and when NDTV officials started calling, the rings made of American diamonds were exchanged for “real diamonds” within a few hours.

The district administration along with the traders’ association had decided to donate diamond rings to avoid low voter turnout in the elections and motivate more people to vote in the third phase.

“I do have a diamond business. These were not my rings. These boxes were given to the district administration by Vasudev Wadhwani, former president of the Textile Traders’ Association. I have nothing to do with them. I was only asked for boxes, which I gave,” Mr Dadlani told NDTV.

When NDTV spoke to Mr Wadhwani, he said they were American diamonds. “The Collector had convened a meeting of Bhopal Chambers of Commerce and Industry and asked us to provide gift items to be given to voters through lottery to increase voting percentage,” he added.

Ayaan Khan, one of the winners of the lucky draw, said he voted for the Hamidia College booth. “After voting, my father had my name entered in the lucky draw. When we got a phone call after an hour, we couldn’t believe it,” he said.

“They gave us a ring then. But today suddenly the team from the district administration came, took the first ring and gave another one. The team said that the certificate was not issued with the first ring, so the certificate is given with the new ring Later, someone told us that the earlier ring was fake,” Khan said.

Bhopal Collector Kaushlendra Vikram Singh said their aim was to increase voting percentage.

“Those whose rings we took away accidentally brought American diamond rings. When we received complaints from two to three places that they had been given American diamond rings by mistake, we immediately informed the team and then asked for the rings to be replaced. who had accidentally received the American diamond rings have now handed over the diamond rings along with the certificate. The original ring has been handed over to everyone,” he said.