Dr. Vidhu Shekhar

Reports of booth capturing, snatching of ballots, and other irregularities have been received from UP and Bihar during yesterday’s MLC elections. Electronic voting machines (EVM) were not issued in this election. Voters, mostly graduates and teachers, had to stamp the ballot paper and stuff it inside the ballot box. Those who have been demanding nationwide elections through ballot papers, must have seen visuals of how booths were captured and ballots looted yesterday. However, this was on a scale much low compared to the dark days of Eighties and Nineties. I covered several elections in UP and Bihar as a reporter. I was witness to scenes of 10 to 12 gunmen coming in vehicles, firing in the air to scare away the voters. The polling staff and lathi-carrying policemen used to hide in other rooms. Gunmen used to snatch away ballots, merrily stamp them and stuff those ballots inside boxes. Polling used to be over within an hour. Voters waiting outside were told that polling is over. There were no TV cameras at that time, nor did people have mobile phone cameras to record these acts. Hence, it was very difficult to collect “evidence”. Occasionally, some newspaper camerapersons used to take pictures, and when newspapers published them, there used to be a big hullabaloo. Repolling was held in such booths. For the generation who have only seen the age of EVMs, they can hardly imagine how gangsters used to loot votes in those dark days. Such acts of booth capturing led to the rise of gangsters, mafia and hooligans in Indian politics. Later, gangsters themselves fought elections. Thirty years ago, when EVMs were introduced in elections, the influence of ‘vote mafia’ gradually waned. Today, those who are demanding the return of ballot papers, must realize they will be taking the country back to that dangerous era which still gives goosebumps.