The 14th assembly elections in West Bengal is going to commence from April 17 in five phases. This election is going to be qualitatively different from all the elections held in West Bengal in the past ? both assembly and parliamentary. This is the first time in the history of elections in West Bengal that the entire election process has been virtually taken over by the Election Commission and the machinery of the state has been reduced to a helpless spectator, dancing to the tune of the overbearing EC members and election observers.

How and why did this development come about? In my earlier article, I had described how in the 1977 parliamentary elections after the Emergency, the district administration of 24 Parganas ensured a free and fair election against all odds. The EC was then a distant entity and election observers were an unknown institution. With a team of dedicated officers, the 1977 assembly elections were also carried out smoothly and the change of government took place without a single complaint from any quarter.

What has happened in this intervening period of about thirty years is that West Bengal has come to be bracketed with Bihar as a state where elections are regarded as a travesty of democracy. In my previous article, I had pointed out four major ills that have crept into the election system owing to the same combination of parties being in power for about thirty years. First, inclusion of a large number of bogus names in the voters? list in each constituency and deletion of names of a sizeable number of genuine voters. The number of bogus voters in the state has been calculated to be approximately one crore, which is about 20 per cent of the total number of voters in the state. Presumably, a large section of such bogus voters have their names included at the instance of the ruling coalition though all parties try for the same in their zone of influence.

I had also pointed out that booth jamming has become a favourite technique to scare away genuine voters, followed by the arrangement of getting their votes cast by the ruling party?s dedicated cadre.

Then there is the absence of election agents of opposition parties in many polling booths or their silence following threats, enabling false voting to take place without any challenge.

Finally, government employees, both civil and police, deputed for election duty, belong to various employees? organizations with direct links to political parties and can hardly be expected to be neutral in their behaviour. Even serious offences like booth capturing or stamping of ballot papers by election agents are overlooked and not reported to higher authorities.

The cumulative effect of the above four aberrations becomes very glaring when we analyse the statistical figures of votes cast in West Bengal over the last five decades in assembly elections (see graphic).

Till 1977, the percentage of votes cast in West Bengal assembly elections corresponded broadly with the all-India average of 58-69 per cent. Since 1977, however, the percentage of votes cast has steadily climbed up, reaching a record level of 80.64 per cent in 1996. Whether this owes to increased awareness of voters to perform this constitutional duty or to increased casting of votes in absentia would be an interesting subject of applied economic research.

More interesting statistics are available from the number of booths where in the 2004 parliamentary elections, the percentage of votes has reached record level of 95 per cent, 90 per cent and 75-80 per cent.

In the 2004 parliamentary elections, out of the total of 48,000 booths, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) got more than 95 per cent votes in 452 booths, while the Congress got more than 95 per cent votes in 11 booths, and the Trinamool Congress in 8 booths. The CPI(M) got more than 90 per cent votes in 917 booths, the Congress in 42 booths and the the Trinamool Congress in 11 booths. In 5,269 booths, the CPI(M) got 75-80 per cent votes.

It might make many Bengalis feel proud that, thanks to their enthusiasm for false voting, so many booths in West Bengal have set records of voting which even the most advanced countries in the world would envy.

While analysing the data for the 2004 parliamentary elections, the results of the Arambagh parliamentary constituency specially drew my attention. In the 1980 parliamentary polls, I was the first election observer appointed by the EC to oversee elections in that constituency. There was a keen fight between Prafulla Chandra Sen, the former chief minister of West Bengal, and B.M. Modak. Sen lost by a margin of 41,000 votes. I had travelled extensively around the constituency on the polling day and no major irregularity had come to my notice. These were the early days of Left Front rule.

I was very pleasantly surprised to find that in the 2004 elections, Anil Basu won from the same seat with a record margin of 6 lakh votes. Some of the samples of booth-wise voting in a few assembly constituencies under Arambagh are given in the accompanying graphic.

After going through the above figures, can we really say that the EC has been totally unkind to our state? The commission has appointed one election observer for each assembly constituency in the state and one expenditure observer for each sub-division. Any display of a party?s strength near the polling booth has been prohibited. To prevent booth jamming, everyone standing in the queue has been asked to carry identity cards, and cameras will be installed inside the booths to record any tampering with the voting machine. The state police have been prohibited to come anywhere near the booths; instead, they will manage crowds outside. Finally, much to the discomfort of the politicians, the use of vehicles has been drastically reduced.

The EC has so far been able to delete the names of 13 lakh false voters and put in the names of 21 lakh genuine voters. The process will continue till the first phase of polling. In Bankura, Purulia and Midnapore, facing Naxalite terror, special measures have been taken. In a later stage, the names of another 1,33,000 voters have been deleted.

No wonder all the steps taken to cleanse the rotten state of affairs have incurred the wrath of a very senior ruling-party politician who has threatened government officers if they carry out the dictates of the EC. Following this rather childish threat, the ruling party has had to face the humiliation of an FIR being lodged against one of its senior members. It is reassuring, however, that the chief minister has sought to disassociate himself from the affair, granting full freedom to all government officials to perform their functions in a free and fair manner according to the instructions of the EC.

The 14th assembly elections are going to be a test of whether the people?s faith can be revived in the election process of our country. With full protection assured by the EC and the promise of a free run to officials given by the chief minister, government employees at every level ? from the chief secretary down to an ordinary employee ? must perform their duties fearlessly and impartially. Which party or which candidate wins is not the concern of any government employee. Democracy must win, and that is the ultimate concern. All government officials must realize that they draw their salary not from the fund of political parties but from the consolidated fund of India, which is built up with the tax-payers? money.