In Bengal’s Spooky Assembly Polls, a Ghostly Dance of Democracy

The spectre of ghost voters suspected to have been let loose by the TMC looms large over Bengal, writes Chandan Nandy

As a kid I would listen spellbound to my grandmother’s endless, gripping tales of ghosts from her village in East Bengal. But of course there were no terrifying ghosts then. Nor now. But West Bengal’s allure for ghosts, reflected in literature and celluloid alike, continues – in electoral politics. These human spirits are what Ananda Bazar Patrika describes as bhoot or “ghost voters” who usually lie in wait in the state’s electoral rolls and make their earthly appearance on voting day.

As the controversy over the huge difference in voters’ numbers on April 4 – when 18 assembly constituencies in the western belt of Bengal went to the polls – rages on, the state’s Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Sunil Kumar Gupta, seems to have done a Houdini act – just as ghosts do in Bengal’s rural backwaters.

When polling ended across the 18 seats in West Midnapore, Purulia and Bankura on April 4, Gupta’s office, acting as a subsidiary of the Election Commission of India, issued provisional figures, claiming that 80.92 percent voters had exercised their franchise. This was certainly encouraging information, which was initially interpreted as a human effort to exorcise “ghost voters” from the electoral rolls.

Rooting out Bogus Voters

• Contradiction emerges in the voter turn-out during first phase of Bengal polls, with an increase of 3.3 percent being reported.
  
• Opposition suspects the hand of the CEO’s office and its collusion with the CM Mamata Banerjee.
  
• Increase in voter percentage translates into approximately 8,000 voters in each assembly constituency casting votes in evening hours.
  
• Looks like the TMC has taken a leaf out of the CPI(M) glossary of electoral malpractices during ongoing assembly polls.
  

The Sudden Spike

Far from it. Two days later, Gupta’s office announced that the average polling percentage was actually 84.22 percent, an increase of 3.3 percentage points. This got the opposition’s goat which sensed that other than the intervention of supernatural forces nothing could explain the spike in the number. Reports suggested that while on voting day 3,244,418 voters had cast their ballots, the figure shot up to 3,376,728.

The huge difference – 132,310 voters – is critical in swinging the elections in favour of one party or the other. Bengal’s opposition parties suspect that the ghosts have returned to haunt the electoral rolls and the ballots. They also suspect the hand of the CEO’s office staffed by officers belonging to the Bengal cadre, implying that their allegiance is with the Mamata Banerjee regime plagued with charges of wanton corruption, misgovernance, profligacy and loot and plunder of public money.

What is unusual for the seats that went to the polls Monday is that not only did voting continue till 6:30 pm, but over 1.32 lakh voters cast their ballots beyond the stipulated closure time. Approximately 8,000 voters in each assembly constituency cast their ballots even as dusk settled over this dry and rustic rural belt. Ghosts had taken part in Bengal’s dance of democracy.

History of Electoral Rigging

Bengal has always had a history of spooky electoral rolls. In the 34 years that it ruled over Bengal, the Left Front regime mastered the black art as no other party. Besides tampering with voters’ lists, the Marxists crafted what continues to be spoken about in awe – “scientific rigging” of elections, coupled with high levels of violence and voter intimidation. Booth jamming and false voting would be employed with such finesse that nobody would be any wiser on how high levels of polling could be achieved.

When voters chose to cast their ballot in favour a party other than the CPI(M), communist cadres would take recourse to gratuitous violence in the hinterland – setting fire to the huts of poor villagers who chose to exercise their democratic right in accordance with their preference for another party and not the Marxists. Threats would be issued before polling (for panchayat, assembly or general elections) that those who would defy the “party line” could do so at the cost of their limbs, if not lives. One CPI(M) worthy, Robin Deb, earned himself the sobriquet of ‘Rigging Deb’ (Lord of Rigging).

Trinamool’s Mastery

Today, Robin Deb is among the most vocal of CPI(M) leaders who has drawn attention to the ghost voters of Bengal. Rather ironical. In the 19 years since its inception, the Trinamool Congress has, under constraints imposed by reform of the election system, found ingenious and artful ways of improving upon the Marxists’ electoral malpractices.

Alongside these means, the TMC has simply taken a leaf out of the CPI(M) glossary of electoral malpractices, unrestrained violence or the threat of it being the measure-in-chief. From Bengal’s impoverished districts there are chilling stories of threats to deprive voters from drawing water from tubewells and community ponds if they dare to swing to the left. Mamata herself has resorted to veiled threats of dekhe nebo (will sort you out) in the event of voters preferring for candidates other than the TMCs.

Since the Trinamool’s momentous electoral victory in 2011, Bengal has seen a surge in the grassroots ghost voter population. The Election Commission has battled these ghosts, banished them from the electoral rolls and yet these disembodied spirits have persistently found their way back in the voters’ lists. Like the rib-tickling Bengali comedy movie ‘Bhooter Bhabhishyat’ (Future of Ghosts), Bengal’s election – five more phases remain – promises to be a saga of the attempt of thousands of unscrupulous ghosts to win it for their kind minder.

Also read:

Bengal Polls: The Quint Visits Nandigram, 9 Years After the Pogrom

In Bengal, Parties Bank on Frugal Means to Achieve Electoral Gains