CPI(M) raises concern over funding in digital campaign for Bihar polls

Party general secretary, Sitaram Yechury writes to Chief Election Commissioner on the issue

The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Tuesday raised concern over the fairness of the proposed digital campaign for the coming Bihar elections, citing the issue of poll funding, in a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI).

The CPI(M) said its general secretary, Sitaram Yechury, had written to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora on Tuesday.

The ECI had sought comments from political parties on what the election campaign should look like during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr. Yechury said the ECI’s proposal to offer postal ballot facility to all electors over 65 years, which won’t be implemented for the Bihar polls due to logistical issues, should be “permanently abandoned to ensure the principle of physical verifiability of voters over all other considerations permanently”.

He wrote, “Though denied of the right of consultation before the initiation of a reform by the Commission, as has been the practice so far, we believe that reasoned arguments will evoke a positive response. Therefore, we are drawing your attention to the proposal of a digital election campaign; more importantly, the underlying substantial question of poll funding”,.

Mr. Yechury stated that the proposal of the Bihar Chief Electoral Officer to hold the “entire election on a virtual platform” had been opposed by most parties because of “huge access deficit” and “massive financial resources that would have to be deployed to connect with the voters”.

Shah’s statement

Union Home Minister Amit Shah, was was then the BJP president, had said ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections that the party had the ability to make any message “true or false, viral within hours” through a network of 32 lakh WhatsApp groups, he said.

“And now, on the eve of the Bihar elections, the Party [BJP] has kicked off a virtual election campaign by putting up 72,000 LED TV monitors for Mr. Shah’s speech. After holding 60 virtual rallies, the BJP has claimed that its election campaign efforts would involve 9,500 IT Cell heads who will coordinate 72,000 WhatsApp groups, one for each polling booth, of which 50,000 have been formed in the last two months. The amount of expenditure that would be involved to put together such manpower for a technology driven system is simply mind boggling," he observed.

The gap between the BJP and all other parties in terms of funding had widened. The ECI had told the Supreme Court that the electoral bonds scheme, which enables anonymous donations to parties, would signal “serious repercussions on the transparency aspect of political funding of political parties”, he added.