People's Democracy

                Massive Rigging In Varanasi

Sunnet Chopra

THE low poll in the UP (45 per cent to around 50 per cent) reflects more than just mere disgust with the series of inept governments that have ruled the state one after another, giving place to sense of despair. The Varanasi Lok Sabha constituency, which went to the polls on April 26, is a classic example of what has happened at a number of places.

One of the major contributors to the low polling was the large number of people whose names had been eliminated from the voters list. In fact, clashes with such disfranchised voters and protests occurred in places as far apart as the Assi polling booth in Varanasi South, in Bajardiha in Varanasi cantonment and in Mohamadpur village in Gangapur. It is evident that large scale disfranchisement of voters has taken place.

Worse, those who have been included have got more than their fair share of voters. At polling booth 225, Nariya, the list gave one Rajendra Prasad Singh 21 votes (serial numbers 924 to 943). Similarly at the Manjushri booth at Bajardiha 19 votes were given to one Noorjehan Bibi (serial numbers 1029 to 1047), while Shahjehan was given 39 votes (serial numbers 1113 to 1150). The evening news paper Gandiv has reported a number of such cases in its edition of April 26 as well.

It is evident that these multiple votes could be cast for any candidate officials choose to side with. And they seem to be inclined to do so from what happened at the Mohamadpur polling booth (230/25) where the supplementary list (serial numbers 968 to 1026) was with the voters and those contesting the election, but was not sent to the election officials who refused to allow those included in the list to vote. This was repeatedly communicated to the district magistrate and other officials who promised redress the situation by sending the list from the district headquarters to the polling booth but did nothing all day long. In the evening, the disfranchised voters raised slogans and the CPI(M) candidate, Dr Hiralal Yadav, registered a complaint. Nor is Mohamadpur the only place where this has happened. A similar situation has been reported from Pratapur, Ubar and other villages in the area. The CPI(M) candidate for Varanasi has appealed to the authorities to have a repoll where voters listed in the supplementary list have not been allowed to exercise their franchise.

At Sunderpur, there were people at the gate, telling voters their votes had been cast. In many places the BJP resorted to booth-capturing. It is necessary that a thorough enquiry is held to uncover how this enormous fraud was perpetrated and a repoll should be conducted wherever necessary.

The CPI(M) has staged a dharna at the collectorate, Varanasi on April 27, and the CPI(M) has raised the issue with the Central Election Commission, which ordered a repoll for April 28. It is evident that voters and contesting parties must ensure that they are fully equipped to deal with such frauds even before we come to the polls, while being prepared to resist attempts at rigging on the election day and the counting.