These Are The Steps The Election Commission Must Take To Ensure Free And Fair Polls In Bengal

Ensuring free and fair Assembly election in Bengal, due in April-May next year, is perhaps the toughest challenge that the Election Commission of India (ECI) will face in recent history.

That’s because the chances of the 2021 polls being rigged by the ruling Trinamool Congress in Bengal are high.

Opposition parties have already red-flagged this to the ECI.

They fear that apart from misusing the state machinery to rig the polls, the Trinamool Congress is likely to resort to large scale intimidation of voters, Opposition candidates, activists and supporters, doctor electoral rolls and indulge in other malpractices to hijack the elections.

The ECI, thus, cannot rest content with adopting routine measures like holding the elections in multiple phases, deploying central forces and central observers and shunting out officers known to be close to the ruling dispensation from sensitive posts.

The ongoing revision of electoral rolls in the state provides an inkling of the massive rigging that can take place if the ECI does not intervene right now.

The BJP has already brought this to the notice of the ECI.

A BJP delegation from Bengal that called on Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora in New Delhi on Tuesday (15 December) requested early deployment of central forces and enforcement of the model code of conduct.

BJP legislator Sabyasachi Dutta, who had crossed over from the Trinamool in October last year, wrote to the CEC detailing how state government employees, who had been drafted for revising the electoral rolls in the state, were refusing to delete names of dead persons and those who had shifted elsewhere from the rolls.

The state employees, complained Dutta, have been stonewalling efforts by Opposition parties to get such names deleted from the lists while, at the same time, accepting with alacrity all claims and objections made by Trinamool functionaries.

Dutta also alleged in his letter that many constituencies bordering Bangladesh have seen a sudden spike in the number of applications for inclusion of names in the voters' list. He said that such claims, backed by Trinamool functionaries, give rise to apprehensions that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are getting themselves enrolled as voters. This, said Dutta, will undermine the democratic exercise.

In another letter to the CEC, a group of BJP leaders complained of the sharp deterioration in the law and order situation in the state and the continuing murders of BJP activists by Trinamool supporters and functionaries.

They also alleged bias by a section of state government employees under the banner of the West Bengal State Government Employees Federation.

They attached a video which showed office-bearers of the Federation assuring Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee during a meeting with her earlier this month that they would ensure her victory in the polls.

The BJP has requested the CEC to keep members of the Federation away from poll duties, including all work related to updation of electoral rolls.

The ECI needs to start acting strictly from right now in order to ensure free and fair polls in Bengal. Here are a list of measures the ECI should take towards that end:

1. Make revision of rolls transparent and fair:

The ECI should directly overlook the updation of electoral rolls so that biased state government employees cannot rig the rolls and indulge in foul play. For this to happen, the ECI should depute its own officers and those from other states to conduct random checks on the process of revising the rolls.

Special camps should be organised to receive claims and objections and central armed police forces (CAPF) and police forces from other states requisitioned by the ECI should be deployed at such camps to prevent intimidation or interference by Trinamool workers.

At least one such camp should be organised for an area covered by every polling station in the state.

The ECI should also monitor the entire process and if any foul play by a state government employee is detected, exemplary penal action should be taken against such an employee.

2. Invoke Section 15 Of Representation Of Peoples Act:

This section empowers the Governor of a state, on the recommendation of the ECI, to notify the date(s) of a general election to the state Legislative Assembly six months prior to the end of the term of the current Assembly.

This means that the ECI can request the Governor to issue a notification declaring elections to the state Assembly right away because the term of the current Assembly will be roughly five months from now.

Once this notification is issued, the model code of conduct kicks into effect and the entire state administration then comes under the control of the ECI.

This will not only make the Mamata Banerjee government a lame duck one, it will not be able to misuse the state machinery to intimidate the Opposition and rig the elections.

3. Administrative Measures:

The ECI should send a stern warning to state officials, right from the Chief Secretary to the Group D staff, to work impartially without any favour or bias towards any political party.

Violations should be dealt with promptly and in an exemplary manner so that the message goes down the line that any aberrations on the part of officials will not be tolerated.

Also, officers who are known to be close to the current ruling dispensation should be shunted off to insignificant posts or kept on ‘compulsory waiting’ where they can do no damage or will be in no position to help the party of their choice.

Better still, such IAS and IPS officers should be summoned to Delhi for the required ‘detoxification’.

4. Election Observers:

The ECI should start sending Election Observers to Bengal right away to oversee fair and transparent preparation of error-free electoral rolls and in order to ensure that the state administrative and police machinery works in accordance with the Constitution.

These observers should be asked to pay special attention to the working of the state police which has, since the days of the Left Front rule in the state, been happy to serve the interests of the ruling party.

The working of the state police should be strictly monitored to ensure that the men in uniform do not favour the Trinamool and harass Opposition activists and supporters by lodging false cases against them as happens in Bengal.

5. Effective Deployment Of CAPF:

The central armed police forces have to be deployed much before the elections and should be given adequate powers to prevent foul play and rigging, independent of the supervision and direction of the state police.

It has been observed in all elections in the past that the CAPF has to follow the instructions of the biased Bengal police and that stymies their effectiveness and leaves them powerless to prevent rigging by the ruling party.

Also, it has been observed in the past that ruling party functionaries at the grassroots levels often reach out to CAPF personnel deployed to oversee conduct of elections with offers of liquor, lavish feasts and even money and material gifts. CAPF personnel are known to have been lured by such enticements in the past.

The ECI has to lay down a strict code of conduct for the CAPF personnel deployed in Bengal and warn them against fraternising with any local people in the areas they are deployed in.

CAPF officers in charge of the companies deployed in Bengal should be asked to monitor the movement and activities of the men under their command and the officers should be told they will be held responsible for any violation of the code of conduct by their juniors.

6. Prompt Grievance Redressal:

The ECI should set up a grievance redressal mechanism at the state level that deals promptly with complaints of rigging or foul play.

The ECI usually takes a long time to respond to complaints and by the time it does so, the elections are long over.

The ECI should, thus, respond quickly to complaints of foul play and investigate such complaints fast. The ECI should not balk from countermanding elections in polling stations from where genuine complaints of foul play are received.

All these measures will ensure free and fair polls in Bengal. Without them, the polls will in all likelihood be rigged and will make a mockery of democracy.