Special Intensive Revision (SIR)

Many in West Bengal are still pinching themselves from the 4th of last month to believe that they are actually in a Bharatiya Janata Party ruled state – something that was unthinkable until it really happened. Everyone could realise that the record turnout of almost 92.47% of voters meant that Bengal was angry and was sure to vote unambiguously in any one direction. Some incorrigible optimists (mea culpa) believed that the angst was directed at the unabashed alliance between the Election Commission and the BJP, with the indulgence of a Supreme Court. 

- 24 great Chief Election Commissioners or CECs like Sukumar Sen and TN Seshan did not require SIR to spread terror among the citizenry and normal electoral revision worked so well for 75 years.

West Bengal is now a state governed by the Bharatiya Janata Party — unbelievable as it may appear. With the change comes a new wave of hope as well as uncertainty and trepidation. Many really believe that Bengal may now, at long last, witness some development. Bengal's half a century long drought where industry, investment and employment are concerned may finally see some relief. Our young men and women may perhaps escape the grip of chronic unemployment, at long last.

Fortress West Bengal has finally crumbled before the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). It was one of the last hopes of liberals, and Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (TMC) had managed to ward off the juggernaut for well over a decade with unusual grit.

Now that ‘the hurly burly is done and the battle lost and won’, let us try to understand why and how Fort Bengal collapsed before the Bharatiya Janata Party. There is unconcealed jubilation among a large swathe of the people — from the richer merchants to the solidly Bengali bhadralok, down (surprisingly) even to those who benefited most from Mamata Banerjee's doles. Such excitement, political bitterness and the desperate urge to change were last seen in Bengal in 1977 in the election after the Emergency; as a junior Assistant Returning Officer, one had a trying time to ensure counting without boisterousness.

We are just hours away from the anxiously awaited results of the most keenly watched state election in India in the recent past – that of West Bengal. But this is not one of many intelligent and compelling guesstimates to keep hyper-excited political participants and their near-insane followers pass these tense moments. This piece is more of a record of the processes followed to ensure the disenfranchisement of millions of voters – unprecedented in the annals of India’s electoral history.