The announcement of assembly election dates is usually a matter of routine. And yet, as the Election Commission let the polling dates in four states and one Union Territory be known on Wednesday, more than just a schedule was announced. West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Pondicherry will see their electorates exercise their franchise between early April and mid-May. But by staggering the poll dates in all but Tamil Nadu, the EC has sent out the message that it will continue to ensure clean and free elections.
Not too long ago, the election process risked becoming putty in the hands of political foul play. If there was continued scepticism on this front, the EC’s handling of the recently held Bihar assembly polls showed that the ‘much acclaimed’ Lok Sabha elections in Jammu and Kashmir in 2004 was no flash in the pan. In other words, the EC has showed its seriousness about ensuring free and fair polls across the country. Staggering polls in West Bengal is as clear a signal of the kind of course correction that the EC has in mind. Chief Election Commissioner B.B. Tandon officially stated that the five-phase polls was due to ‘ground realities’ like the Naxal menace, the availability of the central paramilitary forces and the monsoons.
You needn’t be a psephologist to know that such a move is to counter the ‘apocryphal’ business of ‘scientific rigging’ allegedly practised by the ruling Left Front for decades. Mr Tandon himself, during his visit to the state a few months ago, discovered voting record forgeries and gross inconsistencies, all of which he wanted rectified before the polls. That he has now set a five-day polling schedule — a day more than the four-day Bihar polls — says its own story. The case of Kerala (where elections have been staggered over three days), Assam and Pondicherry (both two-day schedules) are the same. The EC’s bottomline is to get people out to vote without fear or the belief that their votes won’t count (or count more than once). For at its core, this is what democracy is about.
{{/usCountry}}You needn’t be a psephologist to know that such a move is to counter the ‘apocryphal’ business of ‘scientific rigging’ allegedly practised by the ruling Left Front for decades. Mr Tandon himself, during his visit to the state a few months ago, discovered voting record forgeries and gross inconsistencies, all of which he wanted rectified before the polls. That he has now set a five-day polling schedule — a day more than the four-day Bihar polls — says its own story. The case of Kerala (where elections have been staggered over three days), Assam and Pondicherry (both two-day schedules) are the same. The EC’s bottomline is to get people out to vote without fear or the belief that their votes won’t count (or count more than once). For at its core, this is what democracy is about.
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