It all started with the recovery of 20 such boxes in Saharsa district during physical verification of ballot boxes by the authorities. Since then authorities in the districts of Siwan, Samastipur, Darbhanga, Lohardaga, Palamu and Buxar have reported duplicate ballot boxes in the government strong rooms.

Kiran Ghai, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson, said the recovery of duplicate boxes has only confirmed the allegations that the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) resorted to mass rigging in 1998 Lok Sabha polls.

Former Bihar chief minister Jagannath Mishra has written to the Chief Election Commissioner MS Gill charging the RJD with poll malpractices from 1991 onwards. Mishra said the RJD leader and former Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav's statement in the previous electionsthat a djinn would come out of the ballot boxes has now been literally proved right.

Opposition parties allege these boxes are stuffed with stamped ballot papers with the help of government officials and mixed with genuine votes during counting. The state's Chief Election Officer, C.K. Basu, has directed all the officials concerned to investigate the matter and file complaints with the police. After the 1996 Lok Sabha elections, recovery of a huge quantity of "fake" ballot papers was reported from the districts of Gaya, Darbhanga and Chapra. As the issue began to snowball into a major controversy, a mysterious fire broke out in the government press of Gaya where ballot papers are printed. Ibrahim Kabir, chairman of the Centre for Studies of Law and Society in Patna, has petitioned a court demanding an investigation into the duplicate ballot boxes. Incidentally, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India points out that the Gaya government press was supplied with 66.6075 tonnes of excessprinting paper -- worth Rs 2.04 million -- than the actual requirement. Besides, detailed contigent bills for Rs. 143 million have not yet been submitted by the state authorities, the report said.

India Abroad News Service