In a democratic country, free and fair elections with voting rights for citizens are considered to be a very important and basic need. Election fraud is not a new issue in India. Especially since the time of Indira Gandhi, allegations of election fraud have been made, and their incidence has been increasing continuously. Fraud occurs in many ways and new techniques have been added to it, but there is an unwritten rule that ‘it is called theft only when caught’! Our election process is so complicated that it has not been possible for the truth to be known, or justice to be served within a period of five years. Till now, reports and examples of individual level fraud have come to light, but they have never been in a collective, organized and widespread form. When fraud becomes collective and institutionalized instead of individual level, it becomes extremely dangerous, harmful and serious. Similarly in the case of the Election Commission, it has happened before, in which its biased attitude towards the ruling party has been seen, the ruling party has violated the election rules, the Election Commission has not been able to show equal justice to all political parties, but this is the first time in the 75-year electoral history of India, in which this so-called disease of irregularities has emerged openly at the institutional level, hence it is necessary to be concerned and reflect on it.
Allegations and Observations
For the last few months, there has been a lot of controversy against Election Commission of India such as ‘VoteChori’ allegations, ‘Denials of VoteChori’ and 'collusion between the ruling party and the Election Commission', but there was some doubt, prejudice and ambiguity in the public mind about its veracity because those allegations were based on the context of elections that had already been completed. Now that the assembly elections have been held in Bihar and an incredible mandate has come in favor of the ruling party, it becomes necessary as an aware citizen to take a careful and impartial look at the Bihar elections. Such a proper assessment, as part of the duties of citizens, is like the lifeblood of the rights of the voters and the protection of democracy and therefore it is desirable as well as indispensable. Examining some of the issues of the Bihar elections, the question of how to call this election fair and impartial is natural.
While the model code of conduct for elections was in force, the ruling party deposited Rs. 10000 in women’s bank accounts. It was opposed by the opposition, but the Election Commission did not stop it. Not only this, the government promised that under the scheme, after six months, these women would be given assistance of up to Rs. Two lakh to start a small business. Nearly 1,80,000 Jivika Didi’s who were beneficiaries of the scheme, were assigned the duty of volunteering during the elections. In a way, this whole thing was like an official enticement given to the voters. Of course, this is a welfare scheme of the government and there is nothing wrong in it. The question is that its announcement was made when the elections were near, but its implementation took place when the model code of conduct for elections was in force. Earlier, in March, 2004, the Election Commission had stopped the Jayalalithaa government in Tamil Nadu from giving money to farmers. That scheme was in force a year before the model code of conduct came into force. Similarly, in the year 2011, the Election Commission had stopped the DMK government in Tamil Nadu from giving free color TVs. The scheme was in operation since September 2006, but the Election Commission said that since the elections were near, the government could not give free things like this. In November 2023, the BRS government wanted to give Rs. 5,000 per acre to farmers, but the Election Commission had stopped that. Recently in March 2024, the Election Commission had stopped the Andhra Pradesh government from transferring approximately Rs. 14,000 crore under six schemes. The point is, the Election Commission, as per its rules, had stopped the methods of giving incentives to those governments during the elections, which was not seen this time in the case of Bihar elections.
Neither the ruling party nor the opposition can be held responsible for electoral irregularities, because there is no expectation of morality in power-oriented politics, but in terms of rule of law, the sole responsibility of ensuring that elections are fair and impartial lies with the Election Commission. For this, the Constitution has given it powerful powers.
The Duplicate Voters
This time in Bihar, many such examples were seen in which the voter had recently voted in other states as well. Among these were voters with 3 EPIC (Electors Photo Identity Card) numbers, which is clearly against the election rules. In Bihar, the much-discussed special intensive revision was done before the elections, in which the Election Commission claimed to have removed the duplicate voters. Such details are revealed from the photos published by themselves on social media and since those examples are BJP voters, anyone would suspect that all this is happening under some systematic plan.
Reports on SIR studies are being published in the media. According to one report, there were 14.35 lakh suspected duplicate voters in the final voter list of Bihar. Out of these, 3,42,000 had identical voter ID details. Similarly, there were many voters who had voted at least thrice in the entire Bihar. The Election Commission could have easily removed duplicate voters by using software, which it had done earlier, but it is surprising why it did not follow its established procedure in the Bihar elections.
According to the details given by renowned lawyer and former Union Minister Kapil Sibal in a press conference and the statements of some passengers published on TV channels, the Bharatiya Janata Party arranged transportation of hundreds of voters to vote in Bihar along with arranging food and drink expenses and return journey in a special train from Haryana. According to the Representation of the People Act, 1951, no candidate can arrange transportation for voters to cast their votes at his own expense. Despite this, the Election Commission ignored this issue, which also increased the questions raised against its impartiality.
Strange Attitude Towards CCTV
CCTV footage comes in handy if you want to investigate something wrong. Earlier, there was a rule in the ‘Conduct of Election Rules-1961’ that any citizen could request documents from the Election Commission by paying a fee as per the rules. Based on this rule, in December-2024, the Punjab and Haryana High Court ordered to provide CCTV footage to Advocate Mahmood Pracha for the Haryana elections in a case, but a few days after this order, the Central Government, as per the recommendation of the Election Commission, amended the Election Rules-1961, which has a list of which documents can be requested from the Commission? CCTV footage is not included in this list !
Not only this, according to the new rule, no court can now force the Election Commission to do so ! In June 2025, the Election Commission has brought an additional rule, according to which if there is no complaint against the election results within 45 days of the election, then the CCTV footage of the recording made during the voting will be destroyed. It is natural that such an attitude of the Election Commission also seems like a suspicious and well-planned strategy against its constitutional duty to conduct free and fair elections.
SIR's Controversy
The reasons why Special Intensive Revision is highly controversial and several proofs have been published. According to the Election Commission, the purpose of SIR is to remove duplicate voters and prepare a new electoral roll. In principle, no one can object to this because it is necessary, but what is being done by the Commission and that too with an extraordinary speed, is suspicious and raises many serious questions. Nowadays, the reports of the tragic deaths of more than 30 BLOs during the operation of SIR in 12 states of the country also raise questions about the functioning of the Commission.
Gyanesh Kumar's 'Fearlessness'!
Many serious questions have been raised across the country against the functioning, procedures and integrity of the current Election Commission. Despite being bound to answer in a democracy, the attitude of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar has been completely strange, authoritarian and surprisingly 'fearless', which raises suspicions that he has the backing of the authorities for such behavior.
The root of such behavior of the Election Commissioner is the protection given to him by the Centre through a law in the year 2023, according to which no case can be filed against the Election Commissioner for the acts done by him during his tenure. The Election Commissioner is an officer, not an institution itself. How reasonable is it that the credibility of the constitutional institution of India should be undermined due to the actions of an officer ?
One should not forget that ECI has a long trustworthy track record. India’s democratic setup is a paradigm for many countries in the world due to its remarkable success over the past seven decades. The heart of India’s democratic system witnesses regular elections with the participation of the largest electorate in the world. In order to safeguard the core values of free and fair elections in this democratic scenario, it is important to have a just and unbiased electoral process under any circumstances. If there are any obstacles, they must be removed without any delay, but the institution cannot afford to be penalized for the mistakes of any official.
Sudhir S. Raval is Consulting Editor at the ITV Network
