Thursday, November 3 2005 10:18 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Patna: Bouquets and brickbats, effusive accolades and strident criticism, the Election Commission's pointsman for Bihar assembly elections, K J Rao evokes extreme reactions.

Bihar, which has been getting a bad press for quite some time now is relieved that the polls have been peaceful so far. Just two people have been killed in the first two phases of the polls in 130 of the 243 assembly constituencies.

"Hardcore criminals and booth grabbers have been rendered jobless in the elections," said NDA's chief ministerial candidate Nitish Kumar, often the target of his rivals for giving tickets to candidates with criminal antecedents, at an election rally at Murliganj in Madhepura district.

It is not for nothing that an English daily splashed a cartoon on its front page showing Rao as a cowboy smoking a cigar, hands in pockets, revolvers dangling from the waist, while trampling the mafiosi underfoot.

LJP boss and union minister Ram Vilas Paswan heaped praise on the Election Commission in general and Rao in particular for one of the 'most fair' elections in Bihar in recent memory. "For the first time in many years, dalits and the poor were able to vote," he said.

Along with accolades accusations are also coming.

"Rao is behaving like an extra-constitutional authority. The Election Commission's neutrality and credibility are suspect," fulminates Shivanand Tiwari, RJD National Spokesman and a confidante of party supremo Lalu Prasad.

Criticising Rao for his reported statement that holding elections in Bihar was a bigger challenge than in Jammu and Kashmir, Tiwari says, "His statement has affected the psyche of central para-military forces. In fear of attack they are mistaking an innocent for a booth-grabber and shooting him."

He apparently was speaking about Pappu Singh, the mentally unsound youth who was shot dead by the BSF in Rabri Devi's Raghopur seat when he pointed a toy gun at them. And Tiwari is not alone. A UPA delegation comprising AICC General Secretary and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Digvijay Singh and union minister Prem Chand Gupta of RJD met the EC on November 2 seeking a probe into the alleged statement of Rao at Bhagalpur that the area appeared to be a 'Pakistani mohalla'.

They demanded 'immediate apology' from Rao. Rao, on his part, is unruffled. 'Duty is duty. After all, one has to do one's duty," says the EC official.

He also refuses to comment on either the criticism or kudos that is coming his way.

BP spokesperson and member of the legislative council Kiran Ghai voices surprise at the severity of the criticism against the Commission and Rao.

"Since 1978 not a single election in Bihar has been peaceful. In the 1999 Lok Sabha polls 74 persons died and in the following year 61. 20 people were killed in 2004 general elections and a staggering 158 people in the 2001 Panchayat elections," she says terming UPA's attack on Rao as a reflection of its 'frustration in the face of a certain defeat'.