"Potential Of Quid Pro Quo": Election Body Bars Voters' Enrolment For Post-Poll Schemes

Asking all political parties to stop enrolling voters for post-election schemes under the guise of surveys, the Election Commission of India (EC) today said such activities have a potential of quid pro quo and amount to corruption.

In a statement, the poll body said political parties and candidates seeking details of voters under the guise of surveys for their proposed beneficiary schemes are a corrupt practice of bribery under the Representation of the People Act, 1951. The activities, it said, "blur the lines between legitimate surveys and partisan efforts to register individuals for post-election beneficiary-oriented schemes".

"The Commission said the act of inviting/calling upon individual electors to register for post-election benefits may create an impression of the requirement of one-to-one transactional relationship between the elector and the proposed benefit and has the potential to generate quid-pro-quo arrangement for voting in a particular way thereby leading to inducement," the statement said.

The poll body said that while generic electoral promises are allowed, such activities "obscure the distinction between authentic surveys and biased attempts to enrol people in programs for political gain, all while masquerading as legitimate survey activities or efforts to inform about government programs or party agendas related to potential individual benefits.

The Election Commission also put out a list of examples to explain the activities that would attract action.

These include (i) newspaper advertisements calling upon individual voters to register themselves for benefits by giving missed calls on a mobile or calling on a telephone number (ii) distribution of guarantee cards in the form of pamphlets giving details of prospective individual benefits along with an attached form asking for details of voters such as name, age, address, mobile number, booth number, constituency name & number etc. (iii) distribution of forms seeking details of voters such as name, ration card number, address, phone number, booth number, bank account number, constituency name & number etc. in the name of socio-economic survey of prospective beneficiaries for expanding an ongoing government individual benefit scheme (iv) circulation or propagation of web platforms or web /mobile application by political parties/ candidates seeking details of voters such as name, address, phone number, booth number, constituency name & number etc. and (v) newspaper advertisements or physical forms regarding existing individual benefit schemes along with registration form seeking details of the voter such as name, husband/father's name, contact number, address etc.

The commission has asked District Election Officers to take action against any such advertisement under relevant provisions of the Representation of People's Act, 1951 and Indian Penal Code.

Earlier, the BJP had written to the poll body, terming the Congress' "Ghar Ghar Guarantee" outreach a corrupt practice that amounted to bribery. The BJP had said Congress workers are distributing "guarantee cards" to households for accessing the party's benefits. Such an initiative, the BJP said, is similar to manipulation of voters' trust and misrepresentation of guarantee cards as legitimate instruments for accessing "freebies, largesse and utopian promises".