Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The record-breaking polling in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, at 92.9% and 85.1% respectively, is yet another vindication of the special intensive revision (SIR) exercise, notwithstanding the constant doubts raised by some political parties, as well as of the people’s unshakeable faith in the electoral processes, according to EC officials.The overall turnout surpassed the 84.7% and 78.3% recorded by West Bengal and Tamil Nadu respectively in the 2011 assembly polls. The only other state to record an overall turnout higher than West Bengal’s 92.9% — not final, since another phase of polling is due on April 29 — in the history of Independent India is Tripura. The northeastern state had clocked 93.6% polling in the 2013 assembly polls. However, the Tripura turnout is based on an aggregate of EVM votes and postal ballots, while West Bengal percentage is calculated only on EVM votes.Female participation was higher than that of male voters and also the highest ever in both the states. In West Bengal 92.7% women voted as compared to 90.9% males, and in Tamil Nadu, 85.7% female turnout beat the 83.6% male turnout. The 2011 election had recorded the last highest female turnout in Bengal at 84.4% and in Tamil Nadu at 78.5%.Chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, recording his appreciation on Thursday of the highest ever polling percentage in the two states, said: “EC salutes each voter of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu”.Another EC functionary called the highest ever turnout “a watershed moment” for West Bengal. There were only a few minor incidents on Thursday, as compared to the large-scale political violence associated with past elections in the state.“Just like poll violence in Bihar is now a thing of the past, 2026 polls will usher in a change in Bengal too,” said the functinary.SIR — an EC initiative piloted by CEC Kumar to purify the electoral rolls, starting with Bihar last year — tends to automatically push up the voting percentages in view of the shrunk total electorate. “After the dead, permanently shifted and doubly enrolled electors are struck off the rolls, even if the same number of people vote, the polling percentage is higher. Also, these electors, having gone through the process of verifying their vote during SIR, realise the importance of their vote and are consciously exercising it,” an EC officer told TOI.EC is keeping a tight check on common electoral malpractices in Bengal like chaapa, source jamming and booth jamming, through a three-point verification of all persons accessing the polling station. Section 163 of the BNSS (which corresponds with Section 144 of erstwhile IPC) was imposed on Thursday within a 200 metre area of the polling stations. Identity papers of each person entering this area were checked and only genuine electors, election officials etc allowed entry. A second check at the polling booth saw BLOs, NCC volunteers etc confirming the identity of not only ‘pardanasheen’ women electors but everyone before they queued up for voting. Finally, the polling officer verified the identity of the elector a third time, before he cast his vote.“Nobody is being stopped from voting as was done earlier by anti-social elements backed by certain parties,” an EC officer told TOI.
