Bihar was resurrected, lets hope WB's next

How Bihar was won

The Communist Party of India-Marxist, which leads the West Bengal government, has reacted angrily to the Election Commission's recent decision to send key officials -- including K J Rao, who became a celebrity for his fearless conduct of last autumn's election in Bihar -- to the state. Provoked, CPI-M doyen and former chief minister Jyoti Basu declared that' Bengal is not Bihar.'

he recently-concluded election to the Bihar assembly have attracted nationwide attention and appreciation because of the extraordinarily (by Bihar standards) peaceful poll, perceived to be by far the fairest in that part of the country.

A keen watcher of the electoral scene in India remarked that this poll has demonstrated that the Election Commission of India has successfully migrated over the years from macro-management at the national level to booth-level management at the field level and this change of focus has led to the success of the Commission's campaign for a free and fair poll.

What made the difference this time in Bihar was the availability of the rolls in electronic form and technology-savvy officers. It is a lot easier now to scour the rolls for duplicate names and suspicious entries.

A software programme generated a list of households showing more than 10 to 15 voters and these were also verified to eliminate the names of dead and migrated voters. These were combined with the use of photo-matching software to elicit possible duplicate entries from the Electoral Photo Identity Card records, and their subsequent verification led to the deletion of 18.31 lakh (1.831 million) voters and the addition of 4.83 lakh (483,000) new voters. The net reduction amounted to three percent of the state's electorate.

A part of the force was inducted a few weeks in advance in order to sanitise some areas by conducting raids to unearth illegal firearms and nab absconding criminals. A strict monitoring of the progress in the execution of non-bailable warrants issued by the courts helped to keep a check on criminals. On poll day, the endeavour was to cover almost all sensitive polling stations with armed police -- either from the central forces or the Bihar armed police.

The Election Commission's no-nonsense approach in transferring poor performers or partisan officials and inducting efficient and neutral officers sent the right signals to the bureaucracy to perform without fear or favour.

One is sorry and also loath to admit it, but it is true that the state being under President's Rule helped as the state administration was more forthcoming and its officials were not subjected to contrary pulls.

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If we have to thank anyone for the successful elections in Bihar, it should be Ram Vilas Paswan! It doesnt make sense? Of course it does.
When Bihar first went to the elections, Paswan had the opportunity to play kingmaker and form a coalition with the two available partners, the NDA, led by BJP, or the UPA, led by Congress. He decided to choose neither and the subsequent stalemate saw no publically elected government. In comes the President's Rule, bringing with it a thousand hopes that maybe this day, Bihar's tide has finally turned. Meanwhile, a fresh set of elections were set to be held a few months later.
Unfortunately, Buta Singh was just as incompetent and corrupt, and people were left surprised and seething. Their anger was also directed towards Paswan, who, because of his sheer obstinance (it could be something deeper, i dont know), took the state to another unnecessary and avoidable elections.
The EC was ready this time, and the High Court was more than willing to help. K J Rao, the hero of Bihar, oversaw one of the most fair and incident free elections in India's most notorious state.
His next assignment - the assembly elections in West Bengal.

For those in the know, WB has been a communist bastion since the 70's, and this has enabled them to perfect certain despotic practices, including vote rigging by issuing lakhs of fake ration cards and providing legitimacy to thousands of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

So how do you think a hypocritical "people's" party will respond to such a man of integrity and national respect? Well, they start by warning their gang members that a new Sherriff is in town.

Rao has made an impact already, and the Left is pretending to be supportive, admitting to excess ration cards. But to be realistic, Rao has a couple of things not going for him.

For one, he is fighting against an incumbant party which has been in power for more than 20 years. In Bihar, the President's rule ensured no political party could come in his way.
CPM's omnipresence in WB means its cadre are spread out in the grassroots of public administration and public opinion.

Finally, this bastion of the Left will probably not be toppled yet, but heres to hoping the process will start with the first salvo fired by the hero of Bihar. Jai Hind.