Punjab polls: This is how Amritsar's conjoined twins cast their votes in total secrecy

GS Paul
Amritsar, February 20

Amritsar’s conjoined twins Sohan Singh and Mohan Singh cast their votes separately early as voting opened on Sunday morning.

The twins, popularly referred to as Sohna and Mohna, are first-time voters, having turned 18 only last year and had recently been handed over two separate electoral cards. 

“Everyone should cast their votes to help make a ‘Nava (new) Punjab’. When we can do it, why shouldn’t others,” the visibly excited twins said at a polling station at Manawala.

Special arrangements were made for them to ensure each kept his vote a secret for the other: they were made to wear dark glasses to vote, Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Khera said. “It’s kind of a very unique case. Earlier the Election Commission had directed the authorities to do proper videography. They’re conjoined but two separate voters.”

The two are the Amritsar administration’s ambassadors for its special ‘Sanman’ campaign to urge people, especially those with disabilities, first-timers, and voters over 80, to come out to vote. They are currently employed in the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL)—they had completed a diploma course at the Industrial Training Institute—but draw only one salary.

Born on June 14, 2003, at a New Delhi hospital, Sohna and Mohna share a torso, a pair of legs, a liver, and a gallbladder but have separate arms, kidneys, and spinal cords.

Having been given up by their family and shunned by society, they were raised at an Amritsar orphanage. They now live at Amritsar’s Pingalwara, a charitable home of the destitute.

They were taken to a hospital to have them separated but a team of doctors had advised against it, saying that would mean one of them would die, officials said.

— With PTI