Electors in Bihar will carry their own dreams and those of candidates and political parties as they walk to booths in 121 assembly constituencies on Thursday morning. Election managers have meanwhile shifted gear from a three-month grueling phase of Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls to the hardcore routine of the conduct of polls – logistics, law and order, rebooting of their surgical methods and of course enforcement of the vexing model code of conduct (MCC).
The Election Commission (EC) has been pointing to the four challenges it fights in delivery of a free and fair election: muscle, money, misinformation and MCC violation. For securing the poll process, 8.5 lakh civil and police personnel have been mobilized and include 350 EC observers, besides the existing ground force of 91,000 Booth Level Officers (BLOs), 243 electoral registration officers and their supervisors. Citizen complaints and 824 Flying squads on ground have ensured seizure of illicit inducements of more than Rs 100 crore so far. Neighbouring states and enforcement agencies are on high alert. The second and final phase of the poll is on 11 November. EC has taken a middle position between some demands for a single day poll and the three phases that it followed in 2020.
There is a case for limiting poll phases, so that disruption to regular governance and public life is the least. For the EC, primary factors in such phasing include security concerns and related logistics. In the third most populous state of India, prone to social conflicts, and with elections being passion raisers, a two-phase poll signifies measured progress, rather than landing up in a single-phase misadventure. Elections in India, unlike many in the West, are still evolving and therefore require protection of the forces. Model Code violations in these elections have been within the tolerance threshold thus far. Credit goes both to political players and regulators.
Recent elections have seen advisories and warnings from the Election Commission getting stricter in the wake of ugly violations of the model code by all sides. The onus is on political parties and campaigners, many of them election veterans; but the temptation of swaying the psyche of voters through exaggeration, insinuation and personal slurs abide. Conduct of polls may benefit from advancements of Artificial Intelligence (AI) someday, but currently Election Management Bodies (EMBs) worldwide are battling AI-engineered vitiation of election processes. The EC has cautioned parties against misuse of AI tools for distorting information and propagating deep fakes.
It has directed prominent labelling of Al-generated/synthetic content used for social media campaigning. The strategy appears to be working by and large. Poll officials are engaged in intense monitoring of the digital platforms; for myth busting and taking down of fakes by regulators. The EC on its own has gone ahead to redress old grievances and preempted potential ones relating to counting of postal ballots, periodic declaration of turnout on counting day and final voting figures being made available to political parties at polling stations. Appetite for transparency, however, keeps growing and poll managers may unavoidably respond every time. Transparency is the soul of the election process. Concerns over election-time freebies raised by the Election Commission, the Supreme Court and top political leaderships have travelled only a short distance.
The EC has proposed few accountability provisions regarding promises in party manifestos. But the subject remains entangled in the debate of welfare vs freebie, and the rights of political parties for dialogue with electors. Net result, it has been a free for all. The election announcement in Bihar was preceded by a plethora of cash transfers and major political contenders are completely uninhibited in holding up bigger and fancier carrots by the day. Voters do not dislike either. In the face of a large electorate, any amount of voter facilitation is never enough. The number of polling stations has gone over 90,700, compared to 77,400 in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, reducing the burden on each booth to a maximum of 1,200 electors.
While the EC has been reluctant to accept Aadhaar as a clinching document for inclusion in the electoral roll, it is the first among valid do c uments for identification at the polling station. Accessibility support for over seven lakh people with disabilities and over four lakh above 85 years old, including the facility of home voting, suggest higher empathy. Bihar has an unenviable reputation for poor turnouts. Despite significant improvements following the EC’s one and half decade long campaign of voter engagement, turnout fell short of 60 per cent in recent polls.
2025 could mark a turnaround occasioned by significant deletion of ghost electors during the SIR process. The EC has taken up a scientific exercise of identifying low turnout constituencies and applying targeted measures. Focused work on urban and youth apathy has yielded moderate results. The SIR churning would have created additional stimulation for the 7.42 crore electors in Bihar to take the walk to the polling booth in 2025. Not to be missed, 14 lakh young voters have entered Bihar’s electoral roll this year on attaining the age of eighteen. In fact, every fourth elector in Bihar is below 29 years of age, and they could decide the direction of the results, provided they actively participate. Increased number of women, both in the electoral roll and voting in the last decade, has triggered targeted welfare and cash transfers to women.
This has brought dividends to political parties in recent elections in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and earlier in Bihar itself. While candidate selection by political parties certainly reflects the caste mosaic in Bihar and voting is expected to considerably follow caste lines, women and youth could very well cut across the other divides, if they choose. In 2020, Bihar led the way in holding a general election in the face of a rampaging pandemic. The state is poised this time to offer a template of an election post SIR. For voters, as they walk to the polling booths, the popular pledge to vote ‘without being influenced by considerations of religion, race, caste, community, language or any inducement’ remains the best call. While political combatants could make a ruthless push towards the magic mark of 122 seats in a new Bihar assembly, ECI will be expected to deliver, as always, a spotless election, adding to the golden heritage of Indian election management.
(The writer is a former Director General, Election Commission of India. The views are personal.)