Order that made Upadhaya's life 'hell'

Upadhaya

Pranesh Sarkar and Meghdeep Bhattacharyya, TT,Calcutta, Oct. 6: An order that turned out to be one of S.R. Upadhaya's last as state election commissioner "infuriated" the ruling establishment and sparked the ruckus at the commission office preceding his resignation today, Nabanna sources said.

The contents of the order (No. 3312-SEC/1E-85/2015), in which the commission dropped hints that it would take cognisance of media reports for inferring on the need for repolling, was communicated to chief secretary Sanjay Mitra, who is with the chief minister in Bhutan, yesterday. The usual practice is to solely depend on reports from polling officials.

"Soon after it was received by Nabanna, calls were made from Bhutan to senior Trinamul leaders in Calcutta to make Upadhaya's life hell," a Nabanna source said tonight. "The order, which infuriated the powers that be, turned out to be Upadhaya's nemesis, come to think of it."

A few hours later, Trinamul launched a demonstration outside the commission office on Rawdon Street and leaders such as Partha Chatterjee, Subrata Bakshi, Subrata Mukherjee and Sovan Chatterjee "tormented" Upadhaya for four hours. Later in the evening, the party allegedly forced Upadhaya into a U-turn on the deferring of counting and the time the panel would take to decide on repolling, exposing him to ridicule by the Opposition.

The order was issued with the objective of formally letting the government know of the commission's decision to put on hold the processes of counting and the declaration of results for the polls to the municipal corporations of Bidhannagar, Asansol and Howrah. But it went on to inform the government of the commission's decision regarding media reports and also a virtual acceptance of irregularities in polling on Saturday.

"Whereas, it also appears that some incidents of violence were telecast during the progress of poll on 03.10.2015 by different TV channels; and whereas it also appears that incidents of poll-related violence on the poll date have also been published in details in leading dailies of Kolkata," the commission said in its order.

"Whereas the commission having taken cognisance of the allegation based on the materials on record has decided to further scrutinise the available evidences and to call for further evidences, if required," the order added.

Senior bureaucrats and former election officials said the move, which could not be implemented because of Upadhaya's resignation, was significant on three counts.

First, it betrayed the commission's lack of faith in the accuracy of reports of polling officials, who are state government employees. Second, it had, till the resignation, opened up the possibility of more realistic decisions on repolling as media reports are often less biased. Finally, it is a virtual admission by Upadhaya that all was not well with the electioneering.

"This (taking into account media reports) is something the Election Commission of India has been doing for some time," a former ECI official said.

A former polling official said ex-state election commissioner Mira Pande also used to do this, although "unofficially".

"She would first go through all media reports meticulously. Then she would tally the polling officials' reports from places where the media had reported problems. If the reports did not mention anything about the problems, she would get in touch with the officials and order them to revise their reports without any inaccuracies," he said. "The revised reports were closer to reality, more often than not. Then she would order repolls on the basis of the reports, without having to attribute anything to what has appeared in the media," he added.

Pande could not be reached by this newspaper for comment tonight.

The poll panel's order, according to the sources, had "surprised" Trinamul as Upadhaya was handpicked by the government to succeed the "problematic" Pande.

"If the commission now decides to take media reports into consideration, it is clear that the poll panel feels that reports from the poll officials could be influenced.... It is a slap on the face of the ruling establishment," a Nabanna official said.

Officials said Upadhaya had made it clear in the order that the commission was almost certain that there were irregularities in a number of booths.

"It has come to the notice of the commission from various sources that some irregularities have allegedly taken place in the poll process pertaining to Municipal Election, 2015, in many polling stations, which may likely cause the poll at those polling stations to be void," the order said.

Senior government officials said the commission was forced to issue such an order as the majority of the poll officials manning the booths from where the complaints were received did not report any irregularity. "Many officials manning the booths were forced to fill up requisite forms regarding malpractices in front of ruling party workers. Although they reported irregularities over the phone informally during polling hours, their written reports remained silent on such matters. About 85 per cent reports make Saturday's polls seem utopic," said an official who was an observer in Salt Lake.

The poll panel also mentioned that it wanted to be satisfied that polling was held following all norms before it issued the fresh date for the counting of votes.

"The commission behoves it necessary to satisfy that the conduct of election in the aforesaid polling stations has been strictly carried out in terms of West Bengal Municipal Act, 1994, and the West Bengal Municipal (Conduct of Elections) Rules, 1995," the order said.

A minister said a senior politician and "gang" "threw in Upadhaya's face" the order and presiding officers' reports to demand explanations. He said the presiding officers from 430 of the 438 Salt Lake booths had mentioned "no irregularities" in their reports.