In Madhya Pradesh forest, a booth for 44, and it’s a family matter

BHOPAL: Call it family size. Madhya Pradesh's smallest polling booth - for 44 voters, all of whom are relatives - has been created to save a village from a 55km trek in the 2023 election.
The village, Sonewani, is in a thickly forested region of Maoist-affected Balaghat district. Prior to this, the voters had to walk 20km to the nearest booth, crossing a river and several rivulets, to a village named Nawegaon.This time, with rivers being flooded, the trek would have been 50-55km long.
Thankfully, the Election Commission stepped in and decided to convert the local school - which has only seven students - into a booth.
Sonewani comes under Tekadi village panchayat and is around 35km-40km from the district headquarters. Only 10 families live here. Villagers say it started with three families, all relatives, who settled here generations ago. Now, it has grown into a hamlet of 62 people.
"Back then, we only had bicycles, and those who could not walk, like the elderly, were taken for voting on those bicycles. Now we have a couple of motorcycles in our village," villager Sanjay Kumre told TOI. "Now, we will vote in our village. We won't have to go anywhere."