The Election Commission’s move to use candidates’ pictures on the electronic voting machines (EVMs) has provided dividends. For, the election panel’s decision has resulted in checking the age-old tactics of putting up dummy ‘namesake’ candidates against the strong ones in an attempt to confuse the voters.
The positive outcome of the move can be gauged from the fact that against the previous general elections’ figure of nine candidates from prominent parties having their 11 ‘duplicates’, only three candidates have their ‘namesakes’ this time.
Even though the candidates’ pictures were used during 2017 state assembly elections too, no less than 78 candidates were in fray in 26 out of 117 constituencies, who have their namesakes contesting from the same seat — constituting seven percent of the total 1,145 candidates.
Out here, everything is in the name. While BJP struggled to get Bollywood actor’s screen name Sunny Deol on the EVM instead of his real name by which he filed his papers, the lesser known faces in the Punjab political scene, sharing their names with the who’s who of prominent political parties, throw their hat in the electoral ring, to create confusion.
In the past, there have been instances that even turning on to the father’s name for help does not really make a difference. For, some “namesake” candidates even have similar father’s names too.
Expected to be a closely-contested battle between the two strong female candidates — Shiromani Akali Dal’s (SAD) Bibi Jagir Kaur and Punjab Democratic Alliance’s (PDA) Bibi Paramjit Kaur Khalra, on the panthic seat of Khadoor Sahib, both have their namesakes.
Against the Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee’s (SGPC) former president and former state Cabinet Minister, an independent candidate Jagir Kaur is also in the fray. Besides, the widow of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra would face two “independent” namesakes — Paramajit Singh and Paramjit Kaur Khambra.
Another panthic seat of Sri Anandpur Sahib also has an “independent” namesake against PDA’s joint candidate Vikram Singh Sodhi. An international polo player, who has been fielded by the BSP under the banner of PDA comprising six political outfits, would have another competitor, Vikram Singh John, other than the sitting Akali MP Prem Singh Chandumajra, Congress’ Manish Tewari and SAD Taksali’s Bir Devinder Singh.
Other than that, there are four independent candidates in Amritsar parliamentary constituency, sharing same name with one other. There, Sunil Kumar Bhatti would face another Sunil Kumar Mattu, and Mohinder Singh would have another Mohinder Singh Naamdhari.
In Ferozepur too, there are two Satnam Singhs, both contesting as independents.
While one can term it a coincidence, it has been a practice adopted by several political parties to weaken a strong candidate by fielding a dummy candidate with almost same name to confuse voters.
In fact, the representatives of several political parties had raised the issue before the state’s election panel pointing that there was a trend of fielding namesakes of opponent candidates to mislead the voters.
“This was a main point of concern for many political parties during their meetings with the Commission. And this trend is prevalent in across India, in other states too. So putting up pictures is a great decision to check this and have proved successful,” a senior election official told The Pioneer.
Announcing the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections, the Election Commission had declared to print the candidates’ photographs to help avoid any confusion which may arise when the candidates with similar names contest from the same constituency.
During 2014 Lok Sabha elections, out of 253 candidates across the State, 11 share their names with nine candidates from the prominent political parties of the state in the same constituency.
In a “comedy of errors” during 2014 elections, ‘Manpreet Singh Badal’ filed his nomination papers as an ‘independent’ candidate from Bathinda — the home turf of then Congress-People’s Party of Punjab (PPP) combine candidate Manpreet Singh Badal. In fact, the ‘independent’ Manpreet, who was hailing from the same village, was allotted the ‘kite’ symbol, which was Manpreet-led PPP’s election symbol during 2012 Punjab assembly polls. Manpreet has unsuccessfully contested 2014 polls on Congress’ symbol, hand.
Besides these two Manpreet Singh Badals, 2014 polls witnessed two Amarinder Singhs and two Aruns from Amritsar, two Bittus and two Simarjeet Singhs in Ludhiana, two Joginder Singhs and three Paramjit Kaurs in Faridkot, two Bhagwants and three Sukhdevs from Sangrur.