Dehradun pkgnews24.com,Due to the fierce competition between the anti-incumbency and the Hindutva Modi wave in the Uttarakhand assembly elections, due to the possibility of reducing the margin of victory of the candidates, this time the postal votes of only 94 military voters may be outweighed by more than 53 lakh votes. . This is not only apprehension, but such an amazing thing has happened in the by-election of Pauri Garhwal parliamentary constituency in 2008. Even at that time, the EVMs had given victory to the Congress candidate, but a few thousand military votes that came by post turned the Congress’s victory into a defeat. At present, every seat in a district like Pauri has an average of 2688 military voters, which can convert victory into defeat and defeat into victory like in the 2008 Lok Sabha by-elections.
Congress’s bet was reversed in 2008 too
In Uttarakhand, the military ballot papers coming through post have reversed the results in the by-elections of Pauri Garhwal parliamentary constituency held in 2008. At that time, Congress candidate Satpal Maharaj had won by 98 votes in the counting of EVM votes, but later when the counting of postal votes started, BJP candidate General Tejpal Singh Rawat got 5,595 postal votes outright. Whereas Maharaj got only 991 military postal votes. In this way General Tejpal Singh Rawat got 2,29,632 votes while Satpal Maharaj got 2,25,126 votes and General Rawat was declared victorious due to military votes. Even at that time, the BJP government headed by Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri was in the state and an unprecedented arrangement was made to bring the military votes coming by post from Kotdwar to Pauri. Had there not been such a system and the late votes were not counted, the consequences could have been anything. At that time there was a lot of controversy on these votes and the Congress had reached the Election Commission and demanded the arrangement of voting Poxy for their families instead of military voters, which was accepted. But at present there is no system of proxy voting.
Postal votes are often one-sided
At present, there are 81,72,173 general voters and 94,471 service voters in the state. In which apart from the soldiers of the three services serving outside the state, personnel of Assam Rifle, ITVP, BSF, CRPF, SSB, NSG, BRO and CISF etc. There are also about 100 people who are working abroad, including Foreign Service officers/employees. The number of soldiers and officers of Garhwal Rifles and Kumaon Regiment is more than 50 thousand among these service voters. Apart from 21 regular battalions of Garhwal Rifles, there are 1 Garhwal Scouts, 3 Battalions of Rashtriya Rifles and 2 Battalions of Territorial Army. Similarly, apart from 20 regular battalions of Kumaon Regiment, there are also Naga Regiment, 1 Mechanized Infantry and Kumaon Scouts. Since the army is secular as well as politics is neutral. Therefore, political activities are not encouraged in the army. Due to the influence of high officials on the soldiers, questions have always been raised about the fairness of voting on the postal ballots that reach them. No matter how many claims the Election Commission may make of free and fair voting, but in practice the soldier’s vote cannot be free and secret from the influence of its officers. At present, 80 to 90 percent of the votes are expected to go to the candidates of the same party.
Where there is less than a thousand difference, these votes will be decisive.
In the 2007 elections to the Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly, Omgapal Rawat of UKD defeated Subodh Uniyal of INC by just 4 votes in Narendranagar seat of Tehri district. In the 2017 elections, Kuldeep Rawat lost to Manoj Rawat from Kedarnath seat by 869 votes and from Lohaghat, Kushal Singh lost to Puran Singh Fadtyal by 148 votes. Similarly, Meena Gangola from Gangolihat could win by 805 votes, Rekha Arya from Someshwar by 710 votes and Govind Singh Kunjwal from Jageshwar by 399 votes. In such very close contests, if the military voting turns out to be apprehensively one-sided, it is understandable what the outcome will be. At present maximum 16,130 postal ballot or service voters are in 6 assembly seats of Pauri district. In this way, on an average, 2,688 service voters can turn the fortunes of any candidate on a seat. Similarly, each seat in Chamoli has an average of 3,469, Rudraprayag has 2,680 each, Almora 1,227 and Pithoragarh has an average of 3,675 service voters.
More than thousand service voters in all seats
In this election held on February 14, 53,42,462 voters out of 81,72,173 out of 70 seats in the state assembly exercised their franchise to choose the next government of their choice. The postal ballots which will reach the counting center by the start of counting of votes on March 10 will be included in the counting. Since one month has been given enough time for the return of postal ballots, it can be expected that out of the total 94,471 postal ballots, most of the ballots will be returned from the outskirts for counting. In this way, on an average, more than 1 thousand service voters come to each of the 70 seats, which can reverse the election results. If the Congress’s fears of outright voting for the ruling BJP come true, then the BJP can easily return to power again. Anyway, in the last elections also the inclination of service voters has been seen towards BJP. By adding “politics” to the proverb coined centuries ago by novelist John Lilly, “all is fair in war and thirst” and by renewing the proverb, the age of the proverb has been shifted forward centuries.