10

Dec

An Election That Everybody Lost

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A person with white hair and glasses AI-generated content may be incorrect.Can there be a popular election in which all the parties involved turn out to be losers?

It seems impossible. How can it be so?

However, this has been the case with last month’s assembly election in Bihar. While some lost in the vote count and number of seats, others suffered a moral defeat. But there were only losers and no winners.

With the current Parliament session taking up the issue of vote chori—the name given to alleged irregularities by the Election Commission to favour the ruling NDA—the controversy refuses to die down. Even after the new Nitish Kumar government is firmly in the saddle, the debate on malpractices in last month’s Bihar Assembly election is far from over. Not only Parliament but the courts too are hearing pleas against the Election Commission’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the coming days.

The biggest loser in this election is not a political party but the Election Commission of India. Perhaps no election in free India’s democratic history has been fought so intensely on the issue of a biased and partisan role of the Election Commission. A highly respected constitutional body, the Election Commission has long been lauded internationally as an organisation that has managed elections involving such a huge number of voters efficiently and impartially.

The Election Commission was headed by a single commissioner till 1993 when the increasing workload and the eccentricities of the then Election Commissioner T. N. Seshan necessitated its governance by a permanent three-member body. Before or after the addition of two commissioners, it has mostly been headed by bureaucrats. However, the integrity of no bureaucrat was ever questioned by the Opposition or the media as is being done in the case of Gyanesh Kumar and his predecessor Rajiv Kumar.

The Chief Election Commissioner says he is doing nothing wrong and that the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) is necessary to remove the names of ingenuine voters from the electoral rolls. He is right in asserting that our electoral rolls are not fool-proof and need scrutiny. What is under dispute is the timing and the process. Election offices are a permanent feature of our democratic polity and function throughout the year. The enrolment and deletion of adult citizens is an ongoing process; in fact, no special election-time revision should normally be required. If the electoral rolls are not ready at the time of an election in any state, the election officers should be held accountable—not the people who are going to cast their votes.

 

The article argues that the recent Bihar Assembly election was an unusual “all-losers election,” where every major stakeholder suffered losses—either electoral, moral, or reputational. The biggest loser, it claims, is the Election Commission of India, whose credibility has been severely damaged due to allegations of bias, questionable timing of the Special Intensive Revision, and perceived closeness to the ruling NDA.
Obvious and Offbeat
By Pradeep Mathur
The BJP-led NDA, despite winning over 200 seats, faces a moral defeat as doubts about electoral fairness and declining popular appeal persist. The Opposition, especially the RJD and Congress, lost due to strategic mistakes, weak leadership choices, and poor understanding of voter sentiment. Smaller players like Prashant Kishor’s Jan Swaraj Party and the Left also miscalculated the ground reality. Overall, the election exposed deep flaws in institutions, strategies, and political judgment across the spectrum.

 

All parts of the state apparatus, autonomous or functioning directly under the control of government, cannot be completely free from the influence of the popularly elected government of the day. However, for a constitutional organisation of the status of the Election Commission, it is one thing to respect the wishes of the government and quite another to surrender to its dictates. Unfortunately, the popular impression is that the present and previous incumbents of the high office of the Chief Election Commissioner have been carrying out the wishes of the Modi government.

All constitutional bodies must act in a judicious and non-partisan manner, and the onus for this rests most heavily on the Election Commission, which sustains our democratic system. Whatever their clarifications and defence regarding SIR, the top officials of the Commission seem to have forgotten the saying that justice should not only be done but must also be seen to be done. With the Opposition, a major chunk of liberal opinion-makers, intellectuals, the media, politically unattached voters, and even retired election officers questioning the integrity of the Election Commission, it certainly cannot be seen to have acted justly. Therefore, the real loser of the recent elections in Bihar is not the Opposition parties but the Election Commission. It has lost its status, standing, reputation, and grace in the public eye.

However, the Election Commission has not been the only loser. Despite securing more than 200 seats in the 243-member assembly, the ruling NDA has also morally lost the election. For one, it has not been able to counter the charge of the Election Commission’s bias in its favour. The Election Commission, being a constitutional body, is supposed to play a neutral role. If the Opposition was attacking the Commission for alleged irregularities, the BJP had no business defending it. By coming to its defence and counter-attacking the Opposition, the BJP clearly indicated an unholy alliance with the Commission. This has strengthened the impression that the BJP wins with the assistance of the Election Commission and not purely on its own strength. Thus, even though the party has won the election, it has morally lost it.

No doubt, BJP leaders and activists worked hard at the ground level for a considerable time to win voter support. However, it cannot be denied that its popular appeal is on the decline. As before, it outdid the Opposition in shrewd election-strategy planning, because of which it won about 50 seats by razor-thin margins. Another factor was the massive deployment of financial resources, in violation of norms—an area where the Election Commission conveniently looked the other way. Voters were “bribed” in many ways: election-eve promises, cash transfers under government schemes, and free transport to polling booths.

However, despite all the money power and use of official machinery, the BJP secured nearly 14 lakh fewer votes than the losing RJD. This should be a clear warning signal to the BJP leadership. It is time they realised that emotional sloganeering—popularly called jumlabazi—money power, and manipulation are not long-term substitutes for addressing people’s genuine grievances and aspirations for a better life. Concerns of inclusive socio-economic development are more important than shrewd election strategies if long-term mass support and national development are to be ensured.

The Opposition lost its bid for power not only in terms of seats but also in terms of understanding mass psyche and electoral strategy. The worst loser was, of course, the Jan Swaraj Party and its founder-leader Prashant Kishor, who aspired to become an “Arvind Kejriwal of Bihar.” His high-profile campaign and arrogant posturing impressed many, who imagined a popular wave in his favour. The results showed how out of touch our educated urban middle class is with ground reality.

Whether Prashant Kishor was working at the behest of the BJP, and whether his role was to split votes to ensure the NDA’s victory, may never be known. But this does not exonerate the Opposition alliance, the Mahagathbandhan (MGB), from its own mistakes, which snatched defeat from the jaws of a highly possible victory. The RJD’s insistence on declaring Tejashwi Yadav as the chief ministerial face was a major error. It gave the NDA a handle to project him as a pygmy before the veteran Nitish Kumar and gave the BJP an opportunity to revive the spectre of Lalu’s jungle raj. It also lent credence to charges of dynastic rule or parivarvad, often levelled by the BJP. The RJD therefore lost not only seats but political stature.

The Congress lost not because anybody expected it to sweep the polls but because the Bihar electorate clearly showed that the party badly lacks political acumen. It should have foreseen that an alliance with a tainted and immature RJD leadership would be of little use. Had the party fought the election on its own, it could have won more than the mere six seats it got as an alliance partner.

The most unfortunate setback was suffered by the Left parties. Bihar has been their only hope in North India after their near decimation in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Punjab. The Bihar election showed that they need course correction and must forge alliances on ideological grounds rather than on seemingly favourable prospects with caste-based parties of feudal mindset.

Bihar is unique in many ways. To this, an all-losers election is yet another addition.

(Veteran journalist and media guru, Prof Pradeep Mathur is Editor-in-Chief of Mediamap News Network and Chairman of MBKM Foundation, a not-for-profit organisation engaged in voluntary social work.)

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