National Voters Day: Every vote matters! Incidents when a single vote became the decider

India is a democratic country where after every 5 years a new government is formed at the Center and in the states based on the consensus of the Indian people. It is the voting power of the people that keeps the parties going strong or receding into a minority. That makes the vote of every single person so important. Many times two candidates have won or lost elections with a very meagre margin with just a few votes serving as the deciding factor.

As India celebrates National Voters Day today, January 25, here are a few incidents when a single vote became the deciding factor of an election.

Two times an election was won just by a whisker

During the Karnataka assembly elections in 2004, AR Krishnamurthy of the Janata Dal (Secular) party lost the election by just one vote to R Dhruvanarayan of Congress. The election was fought for the Santhemarahalli (SC) assembly seat. While the Congress candidate received 40, 752 votes, the Janata Dal (Secular) candidate garnered 40,751 votes, just one vote less. Thus Dhruvanarayan won the election by just one vote.

Greetings to everyone on the occasion of National Voters' Day.
let's take a pledge to exercise our voting right and take responsibility towards a better future for the nation.#NationalVotersDay
I am sharing one of my Sand art at Puri beach . pic.twitter.com/ul5glQvmWD

— Sudarsan Pattnaik (@sudarsansand) January 25, 2024

Another incidence is that of the 2008 assembly elections that took place in Rajasthan. The fight was between Kalyan Singh Chauhan of BJP and CP Joshi of Congress for the Nathdwara assembly constituency. The results showed that Joshi got 62, 215 votes while Chouhan garnered 62,216 votes, just one vote more. But it helped Chouhan win the elections.

This one vote loss was a big shock for CP Joshi as at that time he was the president of the Congress party in Rajasthan and was the leading candidate for the post of chief ministership. That is why it became a matter of prestige and very controversial. Joshi challenged the verdict and went to court saying that the wife of Chouhan had cast a vote at two different polling booths which is illegal.

Although the Rajasthan High Court gave the verdict in favour of Joshi, he ultimately lost in the Apex Court.