Congress leader Sanjay Jha claimed on Monday that he was able to erase the voting ink on his finger using nail polish remover.
"My ink has vanished into the blue within an hour of voting with just a slight application of a nail polish remover. After a friend sent a photo saying her voting ink got easily removed, I am sending mine as proof," Jha tweeted on Monday morning.
Indelible ink or electoral ink that is applied during votings typically stays on the skin for 72–96 hours and puts a mark on the cuticle area which slowly disappears with the growth of the new nail.
The ink typically contains silver nitrate which stains the skin on exposure to ultraviolet light (one of the components of sunlight), leaving a mark that is impossible to erase and fades over time as fresh skin cells replace the dead ones. The concentration of silver nitrate varies from 7% to 25%
Nevertheless, during the first three phases, several complaints of electoral ink vanishing with the usage of nail polish remover have been reported.
Jha also posted a video with the same.
Jha's tweet attracted several individuals and they tweeted their fingers sans indelible ink after they removed it.
The Election Commission had, prior to the polls, ordered 26 lakh bottles of indelible ink. Mysore Paints and Varnish Ltd, a Karnataka government undertaking, is the only authorised manufacturer of the ink for the polls.
The company has been providing indelible ink to the EC for Lok Sabha and assembly elections since 1962. In fact, it provides the ink to over 30 countries across the globe.
In fact, the government had directed Mysore Paints to furnish banks with indelible ink to weed out suspicious deposits after demonetization. Banks and post offices used the ink to mark citizens who exchanged Rs 1000 and Rs 500 notes which were deemed void after the currency overhaul exercise was implemented.