In what might interest the Election Commission of India, the first day of the first phase of Bengal elections might not have been as fare as it was made out to be, experts say citing the high percentage of last moment polling.
The Opposition parties thus feel “there could be a large-scale disturbance considering the heavy polarisation if the Commission and the Central forces fail to neutralise the Ghost Voters.”
latest reports shared by the office Chief Electoral Officer shows sharp upswing in polling percentage. While the CEO office gave a rough estimate of about 80.92 per cent votes polled on April 4, it made an upward revision “after considering the final reports from all booths,” following which the polling percentage shot up to 84.22 per cent. This rise in figures concerns the final moments of polling i.e, beyond 4 pm, where voting ended early and 6 pm where it ended late.
“This means on an average every constituency saw about 7,500 votes being polled. This is not a small figure in a polarised atmosphere when elections are closely contested, as it is happening now,” said senior Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya, who has since shot off a letter to the ECI.
A break-up shows how constituencies like Binpur, Nayagram, Joypur, Salboni, Midnapore, Raipur and Taldangra saw an upward revision of 3.09, 4.06, 3.54, 3.57, 5.65, 4.47 and 6.05 per cent respectively.
A much micro-level survey saw 100 per cent polling at booth number 18 lalbazar School in Binpur constituency, 99 per cent in booth number 82 Kiamgacha at Salboni seat, 97 per cent at 14 Hatimshanu booth of Salboni seat, 96 percent at booth number 84 of Taldangra seat, 99 per cent polling at booth number 108 of Midnapore town seat.
“Normally you do not see more than 0.5-1 per cent rise in the final hours. The ECI report is abnormal,” said BN Chakrabarty, political expert.
“Normally the Commission should order re-polling in booths where the polling crosses 90 per cent mark,” said CPI(M)’s Sujan Chakrabarty, wondering “why the poll panel was failing to ensure that central forces toured all gullies and mohallas” (localities) of the constituencies.
“In many places they were seen taking rest under the trees allowing the ruling party men to bring voters to the booths in their vehicles,” said Salim, adding, “If this bias continues, then Bengal will boil as this time round no one is going to relent” he added.
With political temperature going up and both the parties threatening to take revenge in public rallies, the experts said “it was high time the Commission acted by ensuring free and fair polls before things went out of control.”