Sirikhola, highest Darjeeling Polling place to vote for Jaswant Singh

Darjeeling News: Sirikhola, the country’s highest polling booth, doesn’t know Jaswant Singh but will vote for him because Gorkha Janmukti Morcha has told them to. After being ignored for decades, the mountain people are desperate to clutch at any straw. Prasenjit Mund and Deep Gazmer make the lung-bursting 12,000-feet climb to the back of the beyond of the country.

Endless rows of pine trees, pearl white clouds floating across a crisp, blue sky, mountain streams gurgling by… You could easily mistake Sirikhola for Scotland. But for the gut-twisting, bone crushing ride. At 12,000 feet, it has the highest polling booth in the country, and as the locals say, only the best of friends dare come here or the unluckiest of election officials. MORE...