All About Purple Fingers and Indelible Ink, the Icon of India’s Opinion Polls

India has been using ink to mark voters after voting for decades

Mysore:

In India, the world’s most populous democracy, elections mean millions of voters paint their index fingers purple, and a factory in the southern city of Mysore is the source of all the indelible ink in the country.

For decades, India has used ink, mostly made of silver nitrate, to mark voters after they cast their votes to prevent double-voting and fraud. When exposed to sunlight, the ink stains skin and nails purple for about two weeks and is nearly impossible to remove.

Mysore Paints and Varnishes Ltd., established in 1937, is the only company authorized to produce the ink in India, which is gearing up for general elections this year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is widely expected to win re-election.

At the government-run Mysore Paints and Varnishes Company in Mysuru, workers are producing indelible ink used during elections to prevent double voting
Image source: Reuters

Since the beginning of the year, the company has shipped a record 2.7 million ink bottles to commemorate the 970 million people registered to vote.

“We did not face any rejection this year,” said Vishalakshi K, the company’s quality control manager.

Company executives said the most populous state of Uttar Pradesh placed the largest order, while the small island of Lakshadweep placed the smallest order of just 110 bottles.

The election commission set the price per bottle at 174 rupees ($2.10), giving the company, whose main business is making paint for public transport vehicles, more than $7 million in revenue from the vote.

At the government-run Mysore Paints and Varnishes Company in Mysore, staff display an indelible ink bottle that is used during elections to prevent double voting
Image source: Reuters

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Mysore Paints has also ordered non-fading ink from several countries in Asia, which plan to use it in elections.

Despite the difficulty of removing the ink, voters used makeup remover micellar water, lemon juice and raw papaya juice to remove purple stains, often with little success.

To ensure these fraudsters’ plans are thwarted, election officials must wipe voters’ fingers clean before applying ink, said Mohammad Irfan, the company’s managing director.

“This will ensure that the ink stays on and no one can wipe it off,” he said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)