Voting Delay Affects Fourth Phase Polling In Bengal

B Prasant

POLLING was massive during the fourth phase of the assembly elections in Bengal on May 03, 2006.  The election day went on peacefully as the voters turned out in large numbers to exercise their democratic right to vote.

Bengal Left Front chairman and secretary of the Bengal unit of the CPI(M) Biman Basu has congratulated the people of the state for making the process of voting during the phases a completely free, fair, and peaceful affair.

By the time the voting hours were over long queues were found formed outside of a large number of polling stations.  The delay in voting was due partly to the breaking down of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) something that has become a regular feature of these polls. Procedural formalities were perhaps another reason.

Another feature, though much less in evidence in terms of recurrence, was the somewhat unexpected kind of malfunctioning affecting a few EVMs.  In these hopefully isolated cases, the buttons pressed on the Left Front symbol would witness the light on the Trinamul Congress symbol flashing, indicating the wrong route along which the electronic beam had travelled.

A somewhat more discordant development was the vast number of genuine voters whose names were deleted in the revised voters’ list in April.  Thousands of such names and more have been deleted in each district.  The voters who were thus affected had their names in the voters’ list prior to revision, resided in their registered addresses, and possessed electoral photo identity cards (EPIC).

Isolated incidents did occur throughout the day although there was no serious incidents at all.  In Birbhum, there was grievance among voters who came to the polling stations to find their names missing from the final revised roll.  A large number of EVMs broke down across the district and delayed matters considerably.

The industrial belt and the agricultural belt of Burdwan saw 70 to 75  per cent votes cast by the time it was close to four in the afternoon — and the rate would go considerably up when the lengthy line of voters waiting patiently outside of the booth would have cast their votes.

The free distribution of rice among voters waiting in the queue by Trinamul Congress activists at Nadanghat was stopped by CPI(M) workers while at Bhatar, a polling officer had to be withdrawn when he was found woefully inadequate in the pursuance of his assigned tasks.

At the Berhampore municipality booth in Murshidabad, Pradesh Congress workers were seen assembling and raising slogans.  Three of them were later apprehended by the police following complaints from the CPI(M).  The rest of the Congress braves showed the police a clean pair of nimble feet. 

At Kandi, Pradesh Congress activists were taken into police custody when they were found canvassing for Congress candidates while standing in the voters’ queue.

In this district, too, thousands of genuine voters possessing EPICs saw their names deleted in the final revised voters’ list. 

Bengal now looks to the fifth and final phase of the polls.

Earlier report:

LF CAMPAIGN INTENSIFIED IN NORTH BENGAL

With the third phase of the assembly poll ending peacefully and with a massive turnout, the election campaign for the north Bengal districts where polls will be held in the subsequent phases has been further stepped up.

The soft and conducive weather of the northern stretches of Bengal have certainly helped the intensity of the campaign work under taken by the Bengal Left Front and the CPI(M). 

Addressing a string of very crowded rallies across north Bengal, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee elaborated on the theme that the Left Front alone was ready to look to the interests of the common people, and not the worthies of the Bengal opposition.

Buddhadeb was strident in his critique of the recent decision of the Congress-led UPA union government to reduce the daily wage of mazdoors from Rs 68 per day to Rs 60. Buddhadeb said that this was another example of the fact that the Congress and its cohorts were more interested in cosying up to the rich than to looking after the interest of the poor.

The Congress and the Trinamul Congress as well as the BJP represented the interests of the big landlords and the big bourgeoisie and that is why the present union government and its predecessor were keen to organise a sale out of public sector enterprises to the private sector.

The same bent of mind, said the CPI (M) leader, encouraged these parties to hike up the prices of petro-products including cooking gas— against which the Left stood firm.

Describing the Congress and the Trinamul Congress as anti-poor, Buddhadeb also pointed out that the UPA government had showed deliberate and dilatory tactics in the urgent task of tackling the river bank erosion in Murshidabad and Maldah. 

The Ganges is an international river and the Farakka project is run by the union government. Yet, the UPA government would continue to ignore the emergent need for undertaking and implementing projects to prevent further erosion of the banks of the Ganges and its tributaries.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee narrated at length the alternative policy perspective of the Bengal Left Front government and said that the re-election for the seventh time of the Left Front would ensure that the pace of development of the state would further accelerate.

Addressing meetings in north Bengal, Polit bureau member of the CPI(M) Brinda Karat said that the issues in these assembly elections turned around the alternative policies put into motion by the Bengal Left Front government.

Brinda Karat said that despite the myriad of restrictions put in place by the Election Commission, the people of Bengal came out in large number and cast their votes freely and in a peaceful ambience, as always. She pointed out that the Election Commission had imposed restrictions in the case of Bengal alone and wondered the reasons why it had done so.

Brinda Karat said that the electoral battle was to establish the seventh Left front government.  Left Front governance over the past 29 years had set its heart on the uplift of the poor and the downtrodden.

Clear progress could be achieved over the past three decades in the field of agriculture.  Bengal looks to a fruitful future based on agricultural and industrial development.  The Left Front government has also set up policies to help the development of the women.  The setting up of self-help groups is but one aspect of the developmental perspective of the Left Front government.