Come elections, and a 75-year-old factory in Mysuru gets very busy. For, it has a major task to achieve as its product is indispensable in an election.
This Mysuru connection with the country’s every election dates back to nearly six decades, as the indelible ink applied on the voters’ fingers is solely manufactured at the Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited (MPVL), a government of Karnataka undertaking.
For the Karnataka Assembly elections scheduled on May 10, the MPVL has supplied nearly 1.3 lakh vials of ink. After getting the EC order in February, over 100 workers were engaged. The orders were dispatched a fortnight ago, the company sources said.
Against orders
The ink is always manufactured against the orders and each vial contains 10 ml of ink. A 10-ml vial can be applied on the fingers of nearly 700 voters, the sources add.
The ink is a result of a “special chemical formulation”, and “lasts longer”, the company claims.
Reckoned to be one of its kind among PSUs in the country to manufacture indelible ink, the MPVL has been supplying ink for the Lok Sabha, the Assembly, and local body elections.
The ink production began in 1962 based on a special chemical combination formulated by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), New Delhi,
Located in a 7-acre campus at Bannimantap Extension here, the factory has been the lone supplier of ink for elections since 1962.
Founded in 1937 by Nalwadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar, then Maharaja of Mysore, as Mysore Lac Factory, the company was renamed as Mysore Lac and Paints Limited in 1947 and again rechristened Mysore Paints and Varnish Limited in 1989, after it started production of varnish besides paints.
From other countries
MPVL gets orders for the ink supply from 25-30 other countries also. In 2021, the company exported ink worth ₹8.14 crore. The first export of ink for an overseas election was in 1978-79. MPVL has also registered with the United Nations Development Programme for supplying ink for elections in foreign countries.
