Calcutta, April 7: The mysterious surge in the final voting percentage in several of the 18 constituencies that heralded the Assembly elections in Bengal has thrown up several curious factors.

Time paradox

One, in 11 of the 13 seats where voting was scheduled to close at 4pm, the spike in the turnout announced between 6.30pm on Monday and 8.15pm on Wednesday was more than 2 per cent. In the five constituencies that officially voted till 6pm, the spike was negligible or absent.

The figures suggest that the office of the chief electoral officer, which announced the provisional data on Monday and the final count on Wednesday, was closer to the mark on the segment for which it had only 30 minutes to collect the data.

However, on the segment in which voting was supposed to end at 4pm and the office of the chief electoral officer had two and a half hours to collect the data, dramatic revisions were made two days later, prompting allegations of ghost voters.

The chief electoral officer and his staff are employees of the Bengal government's home department and are on deputation to the Election Commission of India.

Votes cast

The 18 seats account for 40,09,414 voters. Going by the provisional turnout of 80.92 per cent till 6.30pm on Monday, 32,44,418 votes were cast. In 48 hours, this figure grew to 33,76,728, going by the 84.22 per cent final turnout.

This means that as many as 1.32 lakh votes were reported (or cast, according to allegations by the Opposition) after 6.30pm. Or the average votes reported (or allegedly cast) after 6.30pm in each of 17 constituencies works out to 7,783 votes - an unusually high figure for the closing hours.

Reporters and photographers of The Telegraph, covering the Monday elections in Purulia, West Midnapore and Bankura, saw queues thinning out by noon in most booths. Traditionally, voters in the three districts - among the hottest in the state - try to exercise their franchise as early as possible.

Many presiding officers of booths where polling ended by 4pm told this newspaper that less than 70 per cent polling had taken place by the time of the formal closure.

"There was no question of a sudden rise in the turnout because most of the booths were empty when central forces personnel locked the main gates of the polling premises," said a senior district official of West Midnapore.

He said at that point, other than the presiding officers and other polling personnel, mostly agents of the ruling party were present inside the booths. "Anything could have happened at such a time," he said tonight.

Senior state Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya alleged that the ruling party might have used the small window between closure of polling and the sealing of electronic voting machines to cast false votes for the absentee, shifted or deceased voters.

100% booths

At Binpur's Booth 18 in Laljal Primary School, 331 out of 331 votes were cast.

At Gopiballavpur's booth 139 in Telkand Primary School, 682 out of 682 votes were cast, according to the West Midnapore district administration.

On paper, the Election Commission of India scrutinises for possible electoral malpractice every booth where "more than 90 per cent votes" are cast.

Only two booths are going to repolls on April 11, both for malfunctioning electronic voting machines - Midnapore's booth 230 at Vivekananda Siksha Niketan's Room 2 and Ranibandh's booth 230 at Ranibandh Uchcha Balika Vidyalaya.

Officer speaks

Dibyendu Sarkar, an additional chief electoral officer, addressed some specific questions at his BBD Bag office on Thursday evening.

Question: What is the reason behind the huge gap between the figures on Monday evening and the final turnout?

Sarkar: See, there's a system through which the figures come. What we had given then was absolutely provisional.... So what we gave was merely an indicative figure. After that, we followed the commission's thorough process to finalise figures. Cellphone connectivity is often a major issue in these places, SMS-based reporting cannot always function in real time.

Political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty responds: The system in question enables the assimilation of the figures within minutes. That they were provisional is understood but a quantum leap of 3.3 percentage points overall - 6.05 per cent in one constituency - is unusual and remains unexplained.

Cellphone connectivity, in this day and age, could not have been such an issue in hundreds of booths.

This newspaper's reporters and photographers faced no problem of cellphone connectivity while filing reports or sending photographs to the office in Calcutta from any of the 18 constituencies on April 4.

Question: Why was there a 48-hour delay in coming out with the final turnout?

Sarkar: There was no delay in tabulating the final figures. We reported to the commission on time. We shared them with you after 48 hours.

Sarkar: There is no provision for us to share these details with you.... We were not going to give any numbers that day. We did so only because you are interested in these things. We tried to help you out because you are interested in this. We do not need to share figures with you.

Political scientist Chakraborty: This goes against the basic principles of accountability and transparency of the commission as the custodian of general elections in the country. For decades, voter turnout has been shared with the media and the people on the day of polling and the day after as a matter of policy.

Question: In some booths, polling was over 95 per cent, even 100 per cent in some. The commission examines booths with such high turnout for possible malpractice, so why not here?

Sarkar: We have seen nothing wrong at the booth level. The commission wants cent per cent voting, that's the ideal goal. If that goal is achieved, we cannot have reasons to be unhappy about it. I don't know about you.

Political scientist Chakraborty: Over 90 per cent polling in any booth requires examination for possible vitiation of polls. The commission wants to achieve the ideal goal of cent per cent polling, but not at the cost of fairness.

Election Commission of India sources said a probe was being considered and an explanation could be sought from chief electoral officer Sunil Kumar Gupta. "There have been complaints. While there may not have been foul play, an inquiry is in consideration. In any case, Gupta has to answer some questions in detail," said a source from Delhi.

The Opposition parties today lodged complaints at Nirvachan Sadan demanding a probe. "We have sent our complaint to chief election commissioner (Nasim) Zaidi and he has assured us that he would personally look into the matter," said CPM politburo member Mohammad Salim. The Congress and the BJP also sent their complaints soon after.

The Left and the Congress have demanded the immediate replacement of Gupta with a provisional officer from another state to oversee the election process. They have also sought the removal of some officials known for their alleged proximity to the ruling establishment.

Trinamul secretary-general Partha Chatterjee rubbished the allegations and said tampering with the voting machines after the close of polling was impossible.