Plastic applicator will be used for applying indelible ink on fingers of voters during the gram panchayat election in the State.
As brushes had been used to apply voters’ ink in the recent Delhi Assembly elections, it was also thought brushes would be used for the first time in an election in the State.
However, there is no such change for the gram panchayat poll as the State Election Commission (SEC), which is conducting the polls, had not sought change in applicator from the manufacturer of the ink – Mysore Paints and Varnishes Limited (MPVL) in Mysuru.
The company has already supplied 90,000 vials of ink (each vial contains 5 ml of ink) to the SEC a month ago for the polls, which will be held on May 29 and June 2.
Managing Director M.V. Hemanth Kumar told The Hindu that there was no request from the SEC for supplying brushes with the ink and therefore plastic applicators have been supplied with the ink vials.
“We had supplied brushes for the Delhi polls as the Election Commission of India had placed the orders. Perhaps, it thought the brushes were useful for uniform application of ink on the voters’ fingers. If brushes were sought from us instead of plastic applicators, we would have supplied,” Mr Kumar said.
Each vial of ink costs Rs. 90 (plus tax) and the company had received Rs. 1.10 crore from the SEC towards the supply, he added.
The price of ink had not been revised for the last two years. MPVL is reckoned to be only one of its kinds (among the PSUs) in the country to manufacture voters’ ink. Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, the erstwhile Mysuru king, had established the company in 1937.
The company has been supplying ink for elections — Lok Sabha, Assembly, and local bodies — since 1962. The MPVL is the sole supplier of ink for elections in the country. The indelible ink is made of a special chemical combination formulated by the National Physical Laboratory.
Last year, MPVL had registered with UNDP and requests for supply of ink for elections abroad are directed to the company here, the MD said, adding that ink had been supplied to for elections in over two dozen countries.
The next ink order is likely to be from Bihar where polls will be held soon.
