Why We Should Take A Chance on Voting

Unlike many other publications that deny electoral malcounting because their belief in The System is honed in boarding school, we don’t write off EVM-tweaking outright. But because any doubts entertained should be entertained because of logical reasons, we do put the benefit of the doubt in The System, making us not conspiracy theorists but empirical evidence-seekers.

So, when there was news that one of the municipal election results in West Bengal — in Asansol district’s Purnigam Ward No. 31 — was too close to call and was won by the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate, our antenna went up. But when one realised that the verdict was decided by a lottery — names of the tied candidates with 2,359 votes each went into a pot — one had to admit that no hera pheri was committed — this time.

Asha Prasad of the TMC and Tanushree Ray of the CPI(M) had garnered the same number of votes. Usually, in situations like this, the Election Commission has the option of a coin-toss. But as flip in Sholay shows, that isn’t always a clear-cut decider.


So, the name that was picked out of the pot lottery (pottery?) decided who won that seat. Chance and mathematics being what they are, the ultimate winner won fair and square. A small case that once again enhances our trust in the electoral system, democracy and fortune.