Memorandum submitted to ECI on repoll booths in Dhaniakhali, West Bengal

To

The Chief Election Commissioner,
Election Commission of India,
Nirvachan Sadan,
New Delhi.

                                                                                                                May 03, 2014

Dear Sir,

As a candidate of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the 28 Hooghly PC in West Bengal, I herewith lodge a complaint of vote rigging and intimidation of voters in the Dhaniakhali (197) Assembly Constituency, a segment of the Hooghly PC during polling on April 30, 2014.

Enclosed please find my letter to the Returning Officer, Ms Manmeet Nanda District Magistrate of Hooghly, submitted on the evening of the polling day in person.

In this letter I wish to elaborate a few points about my complaint. I also herewith reiterate my demand to (a) countermand the poll held in the Dhaniakhali Assembly segment in entirety and (b) conduct repoll in the entire Assembly segment of Dhaniakhali as soon as possible. It follows, therefore, that the declaration of the result of the Hooghly PC should be withheld pending fresh polls in the segment named above.

Sir, I personally visited the following booths in Dhaniakhali between 11 am and 12-30 pm on 30.4.2014 while polling was in progress. The booth numbers are 96, 97, 105, 110, 111, 122 and 123.

Not a single member of Central paramilitary forces was present in any of these booths. Only two members of the West Bengal Armed Police and two Home Guards were present inside the booth campus in each. They were all loitering inside the campus and claimed everything was peaceful.

To cite just one example of the stuffing of EVM machines, I refer to booth 111. Here 604 votes had been cast by 11-00 hours out of the total of 961 voters who are eligible to vote in that booth. This incredibly high percentage of polling within the first four hours of polling was achieved because members of the All-India Trinamul Congress (AITC) arrived immediately as the booths were opened and forcibly cast people’s votes at random.

The large presence of AITC workers, who are widely feared due to their reputation for indulging in wanton violence, was sufficient to keep genuine voters away. AITC supporters had a field day and ensured their candidate established an unassailable margin over her competitors within the first three hours of polling.

Voting came down to a trickle thereafter. When I visited these booths hardly any voters were waiting to exercise their franchise. In a couple of booths, I was told by bystanders that Trinamul workers herded villagers who had not voted by 11-00 hours from their homes to the polling booth to complete whatever was left to achieve.

On the face of it, everything was peaceful in all the booths I visited. Nobody was willing to talk about the morning’s events. However, it was similar to the silence of a graveyard. Having accomplished their goal, even AITC supporters had no need to be present there.

Significantly, in all the booths I visited no party other than the Trinamul had their polling agent inside the polling centre or outside. There was no representative of the CPI(M), Indian National Congress or the BJP. However, in most booths, there was an agent of some Independent candidate or the other. On questioning, it was clear that the second person was invariably a Trinamul worker pretending to be the agent of some Independent candidate.

In one booth, a BJP agent was so seriously threatened that he left the centre within two hours of the start of polling. I tried to track him down to his home but he had obviously fled the village out of fear.

Sir, my party had repeatedly drawn the Administration’s attention to the possibility of AITC members rigging the polls in Dhaniakhali in particular. At a Press Conference at the Kolkata Press Club on April 12, 2014, I had specifically outlined this threat and mentioned that our sources had warned us that the polls in Hooghly would be rigged, with Dhaniakhali being the main target.

At the Press Conference, which was widely reported on TV and the following day’s newspapers, I had demanded that Central forces should be stationed in ALL polling booths in Dhaniakhali, and their presence should be visible throughout the Parliamentary Constituency.

Regrettably, the Electoral authorities did not respond to our repeated entreaties.

The mere fact that there was little physical violence overlooks the frightening degree of intimidation and the all-pervading terror that silently raged.

A combination of all these factors makes it clear that voting in the Dhaniakhali segment of Hooghly Parliamentary Constituency has not been free and fair. I, on my own behalf and that of the Bharatiya Janata Party, therefore demand repoll in all booths of the aforesaid Assembly segment in the presence of Central paramilitary forces in every booth. Further, the forces may be asked to conduct flag marches in all areas of the Assembly segment to ensure that an atmosphere conducive to free and fair voting is established ahead of polling day. This will act as a deterrent to the designs of the State’s ruling party which seems hell bent on distorting the democratic process here to ensure its victory by hook or crook.

Hoping due consideration will be given by you to our justified demand in the interest of democracy in West Bengal.

Thanking You,

With regards,