Calcutta: The Bengal election commission has ordered repolling
in 573 booths in 19 of the state's 20 districts on Wednesday, the
largest such exercise in recent memory mirroring the scale of violence
and malpractices during Monday's rural elections.
Senior officials admitted in private that they could not
recall the last time re-polling took place on such a large scale in any
election in the state.
They said there was little scope for recommending repolls in
only a handful of booths after Monday's widespread snatching of ballot
boxes, destruction of ballot papers and several other irregularities.
The 573 booths constitute around 1.2 per cent of the 47,451
booths where voting was held on Monday. "The decision by the poll panel
has certainly gone a long way to vindicate Opposition claims of foul
play on an unprecedented scale on Monday," said a senior state official.
He said the administration was in the process of ensuring tight security for Wednesday's re-polling between 7am and 5pm.
The commission announced that the re-polling would be held in
all districts barring Jhargram, taking the decision after going through
reports and recommendations from the districts on Monday's elections.
North Dinajpur tops the repoll list with 73 booths, followed
by Murshidabad (63 booths), Nadia (60 booths), North 24-Parganas (59
booths), Malda (55 booths) and Cooch Behar (52 booths).
An administrative source pointed out that these were the districts
that had reported the maximum complaints of malpractice and violation
within a few hours of polling on Monday.
"Reports of the polling officers established the allegations.
So the commission decided to order repolling in all such booths where
irregularities took place," said a source.
Declaring re-polls in 573 booths was not easy for the
commission as the state government did not want to give its nod to such a
large number. But the commission stood its ground and cited reports
from poll officials about gross violations of election rules, said
sources.
They said initially the commission was keen on keeping the
number of booths for re-polls to a bare minimum but had to change its
mind once reports from the observers and presiding officers started
pouring in.
An official said the observers and the poll officials had also
wanted to limit fresh voting, apprehending violence during the
re-polling. Initially, it was decided that repolling would be
recommended only in booths were ballot boxes were stolen or ballot
papers damaged.
"But even that number went well past 500. The number could
well have reached 1,500 if the poll officials had factored in other
incidents like proxy voting and rigging," he added.
Sources said top government officials held a series of
meetings with chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday before giving
clearance to the election commission panel to announce the number of
booths for Wednesday's re-polls.
"It was a tough task for the officials to get her approval.
But they held their ground, convincing her that this was the absolute
minimum," said a source.
The Telegraph