Ahmedabad’s first brush with electoral politics: Liquor, bribes and utter chaos

Ahmedabad: On Aug 15, 1885 — 62 years before India won Independence — Ahmedabad carried out Gujarat's first experiment with democracy. The municipality elections that year followed more than a decade of resistance from the British administration. In 1874, collector Alexander Alfred Borradaile dismissed public demands for elections, calling the process a "farce". It was only the passage of the 1884 Act under Lord Ripon, that finally permitted half the municipal body to have elected members. A historian in the city uncovered the episode in a file titled "Municipal Election—Alleged Irregularities" from the Maharashtra State Archives last year. The documents herein describe an election that was momentous, but also unruly.The contest covered 14 seats across seven wards, drawing 54 candidates for an electorate of just 1,914 valid voters. With no electoral code and no restrictions on campaigning, the process descended into what officials recorded as "a spectacle of bribery and chaos". Candidates rolled barrels of liquor into the streets and handed out cash, grain and ghee. Several distributed exactly Rs 5 to voters on the eve of polling. Dining halls were opened, prompting the file to observe that "wise voters" made the rounds, sampling meals from multiple candidates."Polling day itself was violent. Horse-drawn carriages ferried supporters to booths as stone-pelting and street brawls erupted across neighbourhoods, leaving both voters and police officers injured," says Rizwan Kadri, member of the Prime Ministers' Museum and Library (PMML) Society. The election threw up several surprises. Social reformer Mahipatram Rupram contested on four seats across three wards. He won Jamalpur with 101 votes but lost the remaining three and went on to file election petitions against the municipal president, mill owner Ranchhodlal Chhotalal. Elsewhere, industrialist Bechardas Ambaidas Lashkari was returned unopposed from Shahpur-1.Ratanlal Trambaklal emerged as the most popular candidate, polling 131 votes in Kalupur. Other winners included Vrajlal Sakarlal, Kasturchand Premchand and Chimanlal Kapurchand in Khadia; Maganlal Sarupchand and Cowasji Mancherji, the latter securing victories in both Kalupur and Jamalpur; Abdul Narmavala and Narbheram Rughnathdas in Dariapur; Madhavlal Ranchhodlal in Shahpur-2; and Navroji Pestanji and Farmanji Pestonji in Raikhad and Saraspur respectively.Eight candidates failed to attract a single vote, while six others polled just one. After the elections, the municipal body included 30 govt-appointed commissioners, which had figures such as Maganbhai Karamchand, Jashingbhai Hathising and Mancherji Sorabji, with a partially elected board. The Municipal Board was constituted on Sep 15, 1885.