Author: Jaideep Mazumdar
Publication: Swarajyamag.com
Date: April 14, 2016
URL:   http://swarajyamag.com/politics/how-mamatas-tmc-maybe-rigging-the-polls-and-some-dirty-tricks-it-has-perfected-from-lefts-rulebook

There is nothing ‘bhadra’ (genteel) when it comes to elections in this land of so-called ‘bhadraloks’. Threats, intimidation, violence and various forms of rigging have been associated with elections in Bengal for nearly five decades now. And with each passing election, new methods of rigging are being discovered and perfected.

The first two phases of the ongoing Assembly elections in West Bengal on 4 April and 11 April has, for instance, exposed a new form of rigging—casting false votes after the end of polling in connivance with poll officials inside the booths. Polling, as per the Election Commission guidelines, was to end at 5 pm. But the rules also state that if people are still waiting outside the booths at the close of the official polling hour, the polling time has to be extended to allow all those who are outside the booths at the official time of close of polling to cast their votes. This provision was allegedly misused to rig the polls.

Leaders of the CPI(M) and the Congress have alleged that poll officials, acting at the behest of the Trinamool Congress, falsely declared that many voters were queued up outside the booths at the end of polling hours and extended the polling time.

Since Trinamool goons had chased away election agents of other political parties and independent candidates from the booths or had prevented them from entering the booths at all, there was no one to challenge the poll officials who are, anyway, state government employees and can be easily manipulated or coerced into carrying out the bidding of the party in power. After this, allege Opposition parties, the votes of those who hadn’t exercised their franchise till then were cast in favour of Trinamool candidates.

This allegation is borne out by accounts of the print and television journalists who visited the poll-bound areas on the two days. There were no voters lined up outside the polling stations at the end of the official polling time. And many journalists reported that once the polling officially ended, they heard repeated ‘beeps’ from the electronic voting machines from inside the polling booths. These machines beep when a vote is cast.

This rigging was further exposed when the polling figures were declared by the state chief electoral officer (CEO). At the end of the days’ polling on 4 April 4 and 11 April, the CEO’s office put out the provisional voting figures but the final polling figures turned out to be significantly higher on both the days. The difference between these two figures was 3.3 per cent on 4 April and 4 per cent on 11 April, prompting Opposition parties to allege that votes were fraudulently cast after the end of polling hours in many booths.

The provisional figures are calculated on the basis of preliminary feedback received by the CEO’s office from polling officials and the final figures are arrived at after the final tally is done a couple of days after polling. Usually, the difference between the two figures is less than 1 per cent.

Each Assembly constituency in West Bengal has, on an average, 2.23 lakh voters. Now, if 4 per cent of these votes, or about 9,000 votes, are cast fraudulently in favour of the Trinamool candidate, the chances of victory are very high since winning margins in Assembly polls can be as low as a few hundred votes.

To simplify matters, let us go to the booth level. About 825 voters are, on an average, registered with every polling booth. As per the election office provisional figures, 85 per cent (or about 700 voters) had cast their votes at the end of polling on 11 April. But as per the final figures, 89 per cent (or 735 voters) had cast their votes. These 35 additional votes at the booth level, it is being alleged by Opposition parties, are false votes.

Every Assembly constituency has, on an average, 270 polling stations. If 35 such false votes are cast in favor of the Trinamool candidate in the 270 polling stations, he or she gets an extra 9,450 votes. And that is sure to make a difference between winning or losing the polls.

This tactic is the latest in the infamous ‘scientific rigging’ of polls that the CPI(M)-led Left Front had perfected during its 34 years of misrule. But then, rigging in Bengal goes back to the days of Siddhartha Shankar Ray, who was Chief Minister between March 1972 and April 1977. Ray, who advised Indira Gandhi to impose Emergency and gained infamy during those dark years, had also engineered widespread and blatant rigging of the 1972 polls that brought him to power. After the Left came to power in 1977, things only got worse. Here are a few of the favoured tactics of the Left which have been employed by Trinamool:

Manipulating electoral rolls:

a) Getting names of non-existent voters, or ‘ghost’ voters, included in the rolls. Agents of the ruling party then cast these votes in connivance with booth-level poll officials.

b) Deleting names of known supporters of opposition parties from the rolls with the help of local officials.

c) Including names of lakhs of illegal migrants from Bangladesh who do the bidding of the party in power that provides them citizenship documents.

Intimidating activists and supporters of Opposition parties: When verbal threats don’t, or supposedly won’t, work, resort to beatings, abductions and even killings.

Creating a climate of terror whereby Opposition parties’ members or activists shy away from becoming poll agents for their respective parties and this allows rigging by agents of the ruling party inside the booths.

Preventing free and fair campaigning by Opposition parties; this intimidation also sends out a clear message to supporters of Opposition parties.

Issuing a warning to poll officials so that they do the bidding of the ruling party; Mamata Banerjee did it blatantly this time when she said that the Election Commission would not longer be in charge of the state administration after the results are declared and she would take people to task after that.

Preventing supporters, or suspected supporters, of opposition parties from going to polling booths. CPM goons would, for instance, lock the main gates of apartment blocks in Kolkata to prevent the middle and upper-middle class residents (the suspected bourgeois class) from exercising their franchise.

Creating a climate of terror on polling day to discourage ordinary, peace-loving citizenry from going to cast their votes. This would be done by bursting handmade bombs or taking out bike rallies on the day of polling.

Stationing menacing-looking goons near polling booths; these goons routinely threaten and intimidate supporters of opposition parties.

Booth-jamming (a favourite tactic of the CPIM): The ruling party gets dozens of false voters to line up outside polling booths and these voters argue with poll officials and agents of other political parties inside the booths and create a furore. Every false voter repeats this (even though his or her bid to cast a vote is ultimately defeated) and in the process, the genuine voter waiting in the queue gets fed up and returns home.

Keeping central forces away from polling booths so that local poll officials and the state police manning the booths can connive with ruling party agents to rig the polls.