How do you conduct voting in a country where more than one in four people are considered illiterate? Every Indian party is assigned a small symbol that becomes their identity in the eyes of hundreds of millions of voters.
The hand is synonymous with Congress. The BJP’s symbol is a lotus flower. Smaller parties such as the Bahujan Samaj party have a monopoly on the elephant. Where it gets tricky is on polling day, when the Election Commission expressly prohibits parties from advertising inside ballot stations. In a 2010 election in Gujarat state, an independent candidate had chosen a cooling fan as his symbol. Amid 42C temperatures, one zealous official demanded every fan be removed from the polling station, lest it improperly influence voters.