4 min readApr 18, 2026 07:00 AM IST
First published on: Apr 18, 2026 at 07:00 AM IST
What the Election Commission (EC), led by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, has done in West Bengal for the upcoming Assembly elections is unprecedented. It was T N Seshan, CEC from 1990 to 1996, who transformed the EC and showed the people, and political parties in particular, that it was not just a paper tiger. Three decades later, the EC has once again flexed its muscles to prove that it can go to any lengths to ensure the honesty and integrity of the electoral process. The EC’s newfound vigour and assertiveness can be seen in its response to the criticism of a TMC delegation that met with it recently. “This time, the elections in West Bengal would surely be: Fear-free, violence-free, intimidation-free, inducement-free, seizure-free, and booth- & source-jamming-free.”
Bengal had become notorious over the years for electoral malpractice, including booth-capturing, source-jamming, intimidation and the misuse of officialdom. Extreme levels of violence during and after elections, especially by the ruling party, impacted the integrity of the electoral process by creating a sense of fear and insecurity in voters’ minds. The level of violence unleashed by the TMC during and after the 2021 elections dismayed the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which described it as the “law of the ruler” as against the “rule of law”.
A committee, constituted by the NHRC under the orders of the Calcutta High Court to look into the complaints of violence, documented complaints involving murder, rape, molestation and arson in its report in July 2021. It also stated that thousands were forced to flee to neighbouring states like Assam. It accused the state administration and police of remaining mute spectators if not actively conniving in the violence. It identified opposition workers, mainly from the BJP, as the major target of this violence.
The EC seems determined to end this jungle raj in this election. Its boldest step was cleaning up the electoral rolls. States like Bengal and Bihar, bordering Bangladesh, experienced a sharp rise in their populations in general and voter numbers in particular in the past two decades. In Bengal, the electorate grew from 45.8 million in 2002 to 76.3 million in 2025. The SIR resulted in the deletion of millions of non-existing or fraudulent voters from the electoral rolls. The EC had to endure some criticism. But the critics forget that the Supreme Court had, in the N P Ponnuswami matter in January 1952, categorically stated that voting is not a fundamental right but a statutory one subject to limitations of law.
The EC also decided not to take any chances with regards to the law-and-order challenges during the campaign and voting process, especially on polling days. It is deploying more than 2,400 companies of the central security forces for the first phase — nearly 2.4 lakh personnel, the largest-ever deployment in any state. In order to prevent possible post-poll violence, it announced that the central forces would remain deployed after the polls.
The Commission earmarked sensitive polling booths, where more forces will be deployed. More than 2 lakh cameras were deployed in and around polling booths and an effective AI-based round-the-clock surveillance system was also put in place. The Commission warned that intimidation outside polling stations would be treated as booth-capturing, and could lead to a repoll in that booth.
In an effort to prevent the misuse of official machinery by the ruling establishment, the EC carried out large-scale transfers of officials, including the Chief Secretary, the DGP, the Home Secretary, the Kolkata Police Commissioner, and the Additional DGP (Law and Order). The Commission also deployed 478 observers, the highest in recent years, to strictly monitor the elections.
In effect, in the upcoming Assembly elections in Bengal, the EC is combining traditional tools like the security apparatus, election observers and repolls with modern tools like AI-based surveillance, full webcasting and real-time monitoring in order to ensure that the elections are free, fair, and violence-free.
The Commission has put its boldest foot forward. Its real test will be on the polling days.
The writer, president, India Foundation, is with the BJP
The EC also decided not to take any chances with regards to the law-and-order challenges during the campaign and voting process, especially on polling days. 
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