Bloody nose & mute witness

Pranesh Sarkar, TT, Calcutta, Oct. 6:A veteran government official called up this newspaper today and narrated his experience.

The official was posted in a booth in a school located in Liluah that falls in Ward 61 in the Howrah Municipal Corporation. The account of the official follows:

It was 7 in the morning and voting was about to start. The first voter, a youth in his mid-20s, arrived.

"Sir, may I vote now?" the youth asked.

Before I could say anything, one of the five agents present in the booth stood up said: "Tui vote dibi? Eto sahas? (You will cast your vote? You have such temerity?)."

Of the five agents, three belonged to the Trinamul candidate and one each to the Independens. I informed the agents that rules permit only one agent for one candidate inside the polling station. But the Trinamul agents ignored me.

The youth remained calm and replied that he wanted to be the first voter.

One of the Trinamul agents rushed towards the youth and punched him in the face.

The youth collapsed. He was bleeding through his nose. I saw one of the policemen coming in and preventing the agent from hitting the youth any more.

The policeman took the youth away from the booth.

One of the agents said: "Sir, you don't need to worry.... We are not going to assault you. After all, you are our guest."

No one came to vote for the next three hours.

Then, one of the Trinamul agents came to me and said: "Sir, will you please sit aside?"

Saying this, he just forced me to vacate my chair and the agent sat on my chair - from where I was supposed to check the voters' identity and tally it with the voter list.

Another agent came up and edged out the official who was with the control panel of the EVM and took his seat.

Now, one Trinamul agent was ticking off names on the voter list, the second agent was activating the ballot unit and the third agent was pressing the button on the ballot unit.

I never thought that something like this was going to happen when a ruling party leader, who introduced himself as Pradip Choudhury, had visited the booth last night when we were completing pre-poll procedures and said: "You don't need to do anything.... My boys will be here and they will conduct the election."

After 1pm, some people came in and said they wanted to vote. The agent with the voter list, said: " Ei eder vote dite de, sob chena lok (Let them vote, all known faces)."

The voting process was undertaken by the agents while my officers were mute spectators. I was feeling restless. But I could not do anything as my nerves were shaken after they hit the first voter.

This went on for the entire day. The observer had visited the booth around 2pm. He saw everything. He must have read our faces but went away without making any comment.

At 5pm, one agent said: "Sir, fill up the presiding officer's diary. The rest we are helping you to organise."

I had to tick on the printed paper that there was no intimidation in my booth and there was no irregularity in the poll process.

With the agents standing in front of my table, I wrote that 728 polls were cast out of 850-odd voters and the process was free, fair and peaceful.

When the vehicle came to pick us up, I called up the state election commission and told the official concerned about the day's happenings. I also made it clear that I was forced to give a positive report as the agents had forced me to do so.

The commission official promised to do the needful. I have been informed that the commission was not considering repoll in my booth and there was no evidence of violence or malpractice.