M Narayanan, 81, was relieved to hear he’d be able to vote in the general elections this year. A resident of Green Park in New Delhi, he was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago and finds it difficult to leave the house.
In April, however, a local BJP leader named Bhuwan Sharma told Narayanan’s son Amit that the Election Commission had instituted a facility whereby disabled or elderly voters can vote from the comfort of their homes.
According to the EC, there are 1.7 crore voters in India who are eligible for this scheme of which 1.73 lakh are in Delhi. The EC provided its BLOs with lists of eligible voters in their designated areas; the BLOs must then visit the voter’s home to fill up Form 12D and file it. A team of polling officials along with security officials and a videographer will then visit the voter’s residence and help them cast their vote through postal ballot.
But Amit said when booth-level officer Rajpal Kain arrived at his father’s home in the first week of May, he was accompanied by BJP’s Bhuwan Sharma. At least five voters in Green Park told Newslaundry that Bhuwan Sharma visited their home with Kain to watch as they filled up the 12D form.
But this is ostensibly part of the BJP’s campaign across Delhi. Newslaundry learned that party leaders encouraged workers to accompany BLOs on their rounds to fill up 12D forms. They were even given “targets” to meet, all in the hope that the exercise would encourage voters to vote for the BJP.
Crucially, this is a clear violation of Election Commission guidelines, which say the “BLO is responsible for retrieving Form 12D from the elector's place of residence when the required documentation has been completed”.
Newslaundry sent a questionnaire to the Election Commission asking why a member of a political party was accompanying an EC official for election work. This report will be updated if we receive a response.
‘Acting proactively is important’: BJP
Rajeev Rana, president of the BJP in New Delhi district, confirmed that his party workers “accompanied BLOs to get over 300 forms filled”.
“We pushed our local workers to get this done. Because we are a party which works actively on the ground unlike AAP or Congress. We want to increase our vote margin in Delhi so everyone’s vote is important. And we are confident that of all the 12D forms we have filled, over 90 percent of them will vote for us. That’s why acting proactively is important,” he said.
Ashok Vashisht, head of the BJP in Mayur Vihar district, and Naresh Basist, former head of the BJP in Mehrauli, also confirmed to Newslaundry that local party workers carry out a similar exercise in their areas too.
Vashisht said, “We got over 500 12D forms filled. And our party workers also accompanied the nodal officers in the respective areas.”
Anju Sharma, a senior BJP worker in Green Park, told Newslaundry she too “went along with Bhuwan Sharma and the respective BLO” to get 12D forms filled.
“In our party meetings, senior BJP workers told us that they wanted us to push to get more and more such forms filled. We were given targets and then we had to report about them to our senior party workers. All of this would be cross-checked by them to make sure that none of us is missing on our targets,” she said. “Moreover, this election, the BJP does not want to take any risks. So, the local workers were held even more accountable than the previous elections.”
BLO Kain confirmed that Sharma came along with him because with his “help”, it was “easier to navigate the area and identify the houses”.
But there’s more. Newslaundry learned that Bhuwan Sharma shot videos of at least six such visits, during which he asked the respective voter whether they would vote for Modi. Sharma himself shared them with Newslaundry; all of them show him standing in a voter’s home and addressing the camera.
Booth-level officer Kain said, “Sharma shot such videos and asked such questions”.
Bhuwan also confirmed he did so to Newslaundry, saying he shot the videos because he thought it was a good opportunity. He said he recorded videos of “at least 35” voters.
For example, Amit said that Bhuwan shot a video when he visited Narayanan’s home with Kain in Green Park. Bhuwan Sharma himself shared the video with this reporter.
The video shows Bhuwan Sharma standing in Narayanan’s home, saying: “He is a cancer patient and cannot walk till the polling station. But he wants to vote for Modi. We are making this arrangement for him.” He then asks Narayanan, “Why do you want to vote for Modi?”
Bhuwan confirmed to Newslaundry that he’s the man in the video and that he asked the questions.
“Earlier, voters were not even aware about this new provision by the EC. Our party informed us about it and when I reached out to voters in my area, I got a positive response because voters in these age groups were far more excited to vote than others,” he said. “And incidentally they are also Modi supporters. So, we thought if we act proactively we can increase our party’s vote share.”
Why didn’t he show Kain?
“Because it is not allowed, EC is an independent body. Showing his face in the video would have been too much,” he said.
Also in Green Park, Lal Pyari, 94, told Newslaundry she applied to vote at home due to her age. His booth-level officer, not Kain in this case, arrived with Bhuwan Sharma in tow. She confirmed that Bhuwan shot a video and asked her why she “likes PM Modi”.
Lal Pyari’s son RC Dhingra also said the BJP worker had come along, shot a video, and asked his mother “why they support the BJP”. “BJP workers accompanying BLOs is definitely the party’s measure to increase vote share. Perhaps it can also influence the minds of other voters,” Dhingra said.
Bhuwan proudly said the videos are “immensely helpful”.
“We share them in our RWA WhatsApp groups which would help spread our message wider and get more voters on board,” he said. “We found that booth-level officers didn’t have the time and resources to carry out this exercise on their own so we took things into our own hands.”
BLO Kain corroborated this.
“It is true that we lacked resources to carry out this procedure. For instance, on the last date, 12D forms had to be submitted to the ECI office in Humanyupur, I was overworked and did not have the time to submit on my own. So, I sought Bhuwan Sharma’s help to submit them and made some calls in the office to accept the forms from him,” he said.
Newslaundry spoke to three other BLOs – Ashok Kumar, Pankaj and Munish Chand Badola – who are deployed in Delhi’s Safdarjung Enclave. They all said there are “clear guidelines” that filling 12D forms cannot be done along with party workers.
Kumar says, “It is understood that there should not be any interference of any political party in the election commission's work. This exercise has to be carried out independently because ECI is an independent body.”
Badola said, “How can we accompany any political party? We are not working for them. Otherwise the exercise will lose its transparency.”
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