In the recent panchayat elections in Haryana, the state government prescribed a minimum educational qualification for candidates to be eligible to contest. That saw half of the incumbents drop out of the race even before it began. Though, Haryana has a literacy rate above 70% in some parts of rural Haryana, women and the poor have been left out. We travel to the Mewat district to find out how education has shaped the discourse around this election.