Rao changes poll history of Bihar

New Delhi: If there is an undisputed winner for the electorate of Bihar in the November 2005 elections, it is the Election Commission (EC) legal advisor K J Rao.

Bihar, which has been synonymous with having a violent electoral history, saw its most peaceful and fair elections in recent memory.

In this elections only two people died, one of them a victim of mistaken identity.

In contrast, in the last round of the Assembly elections in February this year, 22 people died. Since 1977, 533 people have died in election violence. 1990 was the worst year of all, when 86 people died.

The credit for this turnaround is being given to the paramilitary forces and the 63-year-old Rao along with the Chief Electoral Officer N K Sinha.

The peaceful conduct of the polls also blasts the myth that the state has withered away in Bihar.

Maintaining that holding assembly elections in Bihar was 'challenging', Chief Election Commissioner B B Tandon also came out in strong defence of Rao who has been under attack from Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in the wake of his tough handling of poll irregularities.

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"To hold elections in a peaceful, free and fair manner in Bihar is a very difficult task. It was a challenge," Tandon said on November 20, a day after the conclusion of the month-long elections in the state.

The Commission was 'satisfied' with its performance and the "credit goes to the people of the state", he said.

RJD leader Prem Chand Gupta and senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh had recently met the EC to protest certain remarks of Rao.

"Rao, who was a member of two-member team of special observers in Bihar, has done commendable work. People, candidates and even the press appreciated his work. The Commission is satisfied with his work," Tandon said.

The peaceful and almost incident free elections prove that various arms of the administration can act in the interest of democracy, and not against it, if they are so empowered.

After all the success of a democracy is determined by the ease with which it frames and enforces laws.