Bhubaneswar: The Naveen Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal, which is now the main opposition party in Odisha after losing the last election to the Bharatiya Janata Party, has demanded periodic “process audit” of the election process by independent auditors or the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG). It has also reminded the Election Commission that it has not responded to issues of vote discrepancy raised by the party in its memorandum submitted to the commission in December last year.
The latest demands of the regional party contained in a fresh memorandum presented to the EC on Tuesday (March 11) have found resonance with parties like the Congress which has also underscored the need for reforms in the electoral process. Supporting the BJD’s demand for independent audit of the election process and making its report public veteran Congress leader and former MLA Lalatendu Mohapatra said, “There is an urgent need for making the whole process transparent. Every time elections are held there are complaints about malpractices. It does no good to our image as the world’s largest democracy.”
The memorandum submitted to the EC by a delegation of BJD leaders including several of its Rajya Sabha members said, “We had mentioned in our earlier Memorandum that discrepancies indicated therein were unusual and showed that there was either machine [EVM] error or manual error [during data entry] or process error or a combination of all these. Since doubts have been raised in the minds of voters about whether free and fair elections were held, on account of such discrepancies, which further get strengthened due to non-furnishing of parts one and two of Forms 17C despite repeated written requests in the last seven months, the BJD would like to suggest or demand the following in the interest of free and fair elections in the country.”
The party has made a number of suggestions, the most important of them being the conduct of a periodic ‘process audit’ of the entire election process by independent auditors or the CAG and making such reports public as is the practice in several countries where democratic elections are held.
The BJD also demanded that a mechanism be developed for involving citizen groups in co-monitoring the election process from beginning to the end. “Put in a mechanism for conducting concurrent audit during polling at booth level as well as during counting after satisfactory completion of which the results should be declared. Concurrent audit can be done almost real-time so that there is no undue delay in the declaration of results,” demanded the party, and went on to suggest “Tallying of all VVPAT slips with the EVM count in every booth using now-available advanced counting machines.”
The memorandum signed, among others, by the party’s coordination and activities committee chairperson and former minister Debi Prasad Mishra, also demanded that there should be a 30-day time-limit for District Election Officer to furnish copies of parts one and two of Forms 17C, as well as all VVPATS to any citizen on payment of prescribed fees. “We believe that the above measures would increase the trust of the citizens on the fairness and transparency of the election process and the conduct of the election officials involved in the process,” said the memorandum.
Delimitation
Significantly, the development came on a day when a two-member Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam delegation comprising former Union minister Dayanidhi Maran and Tamil Nadu industries minister T.R.B. Rajaa met BJD president and former chief minister Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar to invite him to Chennai to attend a meeting aimed at setting up a joint action committee on the controversial delimitation proposal of the Union government.
Patnaik, a five-time chief minister who lost power following his party’s shock defeat in the last elections, is reported to have accepted DMK’s invitation to attend the meet.
This marks a significant shift in Patnaik’s earlier policy of steering clear of all political alignments while extending support to the BJP-led government at the Union on crucial issues even though the party happened to be BJD’s principal rival in Odisha.
“The delimitation exercise is aimed at increasing Lok Sabha and assembly seats in northern India and other areas where the BJP is strong. They want to reduce the number of these seats in the south where they are weak. They may try to reduce the numbers even in Odisha where they enjoy only a slender majority in the state assembly and have managed to win 20 Lok Sabha seats merely by fluke. They know they won’t be able to repeat it next time,” said former BJD MLA Latika Pradhan.
She also expressed doubts about the Election Commission responding to his party’s demands. “The EC is acting as an employee of the BJP. We can’t expect from it,” she said, pointing out that in its memorandum submitted to the body in December last year her party had pointed out striking discrepancies such as variances between Form 17-C, filled by the presiding officer at the close of polls (recording total votes polled), and Form 20, filled by the returning officer on counting day (recording total votes counted from the same EVM).
The party had cited specific examples and demanded to know how could the total number of votes counted by the returning officer differ so much from the report of votes polled by the presiding officer when EVMs are used. Stating that these variances raised questions about the integrity of the whole process the party alleged that copies of Form 17-C were not made available to it despite repeated requests, even after the statutory period for retention of documents was over.
The regional party, which was blanked in the Lok Sabha for the first time while managing to win 51 assembly seats, noted that in simultaneously held elections, the total number of votes polled in a parliamentary constituency (PC) and the sum of votes polled in its constituent assembly constituencies (ACs) should be identical or very similar. However, it pointed out that there was a huge discrepancy between votes counted in a PC and its constituent ACs across all the PCs in Odisha. It cited wide vote discrepancies ranging from a difference of 4,056 votes in Dhenkanal PC to 3,521 votes in Kandhamal PC, and 2,701 votes in Balangir PC and urged the commission to look into the matter urgently.
The memorandum presented to the EC on Tuesday was a reminder by the party that it still awaited answers and corrective action from the top election body. It also reflects the determination of the regional party, which has decided not offer even issue-based support to the BJP-led government at the Centre as it had been doing in the past, to pursue the matter diligently and take it to its logical end. Political analyst Shashi Kant Mishra said, “The defeat in the last election has been a bitter lesson for the BJD. It has realised the folly of supporting the NDA government while fighting the BJP in the state. People punished it in the last elections for this duplicity.”
