Kollemcode

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Voting in 2 states: Tamil Nadu, Kerala

The Times of India, May 14 2016

Jaya Menon

Set against the sea on the southernmost tip, the fishing hamlet of Kollemcode sits on the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border. The village shares not just a football ground with Kerala, but its concrete and terraced houses as well. The compound wall of Madonna Sabidas's house is on the fence. She lives in TN and has a Kerala ration card.

At Pozhiyur in Kerala, some houses have kitchens in one state, rest of the rooms in the other. The “priv ilege“, if one could call it that, is that many living here have two ration cards and vote in both states. But this time around, there's a serious prob lem. Both TN and Kerala vote on May 16. “I have relatives here and my business interests are in TN. I have two voter N. I have two voter IDs,“ says Susai Mariasimson, a fisherman from Pulluvala in Kerala, 7km from Kollemcode. In TN, he votes for the AIADMK and in Kerala for the Congress.

This time, since voting in both states is on the same day, villagers have been meeting near the church discussing how they could remove the ink from their right index finger and hop across to vote in Kerala the same day. “I've voted thrice in a day in the past.There are certain chemicals that can be used,“ says Michael. Mariasimson says he's rubbed lime to remove the ink.