Why Opposition parties have not boycotted elections despite poll rigging allegations

Abhijeet Dipke, the founder of the Cockroach Janta Party political campaign, on September 25 called on Opposition parties to boycott polls if they do not trust the Election Commission to hold free and fair polls.

Dipke contended that this was a logical inconsistency: why are they participating in exercises they contend are rigged? It is merely for their “political survival”, he claimed.

By participating in elections, Opposition parties help “maintain the illusion that they are free and fair”. But a boycott would deny Indian elections the legitimacy they now have, Dipke argued.

Dipke’s approach found support on social media. Among those who called for polls to be boycotted was former minister in the Narendra Modi Cabinet, RK Singh, who had resigned from the Bharatiya Janata party last year.

But even after several years of alleging irregularities in the electoral process, no Opposition party has so far given a serious thought to the idea of boycotting elections.

Some on social media defended Dipke’s approach, suggesting that boycotting elections would not mean merely sitting at home and doing nothing more. A boycott could result in new political movements being built, protests and mass mobilisation against the alleged irregularities in elections, they argued.

These objectives, however, are not contingent on elections being boycotted. In fact, mass mobilisation could, in theory, yield better results...

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