Kolkata: In a first-of-its-kind, police-secured election on Saturday, 1,017 Tolly technicians cast their votes across two film studios in Kolkata to begin the opening phase of polling. Staying outside the studio premises, actor and Kolkata International Film Festival (KIFF) adviser Mithun Chakraborty, along with actors and BJP MLAs Rudranil Ghosh and Papiya Adhikary, kept watch to ensure that every eligible voter could freely exercise their franchise to elect committee members for five guilds. Voting for the remaining 11 guilds with 2,441 valid voters will take place at five studios on Sunday.Chakraborty told the media “I have made this rule that apart from voters, no one can get inside the studio. So, I too am sitting outside. Voting is happening peacefully. Earlier, voting didn’t even happen. Police have cooperated with us. Forty CCTV cameras have been installed. There is no chance of any wrongdoing whatsoever. There will be no one worse than me if anyone tries to create trouble,” Chakraborty said.Committee members of seven guilds have already been elected uncontested. The newly elected presidents of those guilds include filmmaker Saibal Mitra for the Directors Association of Eastern India (Film & TV), Jayanta Kundu for the Cine Production Managers’ Association, Gopal Roy for the Film Production Assistant Guild (WB), Gopal Mallik for the Cine and Video Lightmen Association (WB), Manabendra Mukherjee for the Calcutta Cine Musician Association, Shibu Chowdhury for the Kolkata Cine and TV Freelance Drivers’ Union, and Biplab Palit for the Cine Dancer Association of West Bengal. “Since 1991, I have never seen any voting conducted so transparently. Anyone can later also see the CCTV footage of sealed ballots and the counting process,” said Kundu.Ghosh told TOI that everyone wants clean and transparent functioning in Tollywood. “Many commoners often confuse these polls with Lok Sabha, assembly, or corporation elections, but this process is different, whereby committee members of 23 guilds are being elected following trade union commission or labour commission norms. No names were struck off from the eligible voters’ list on the basis of whims and fancies. Every trade union commission norm has been followed this time, and no political logo or symbol is used here as co-technicians contest without keeping political allegiance in mind.”During the run-up to the polls, debates arose over the process used to eliminate fake voters, with some even questioning if Tollywood was trying to adopt an SIR-like model. Ghosh stated that a transparent process had eliminated all fake voters — many of whom had previously obtained guild cards despite having no connection to Tollywood. “We have heard of cards being issued for money, and many individuals held multiple cards across various guilds, leaving technicians to wonder if peers collecting daily remuneration actually knew the job at all.” Ghosh further noted that cards may have even fallen into the hands of individuals who crossed the border from Bangladesh and overstayed, stressing that such names had to be removed.”Addressing Swarup Biswas’s voting status, Ghosh stated that his “fake assistant director card” was officially cancelled by the guild and reported to the trade union commission, concluding, “So he is no longer a part of the industry”.Happy with the way elections were held, Adhikary said, “Transparency was the hallmark. We made sure that the elections were fair. Even the results were declared on the same day.”Saturday’s voting results showed that Somnath Kundu was elected president of the makeup artists’ guild, Bapi Ghosh of the cine video costume guild, Abhijit Saha of the cine and video catwalk and hanging lighting workers of WB guild, and Keshab Chakraborty of the cine writers’ guild, while counting for the cine video assistant directors’ guild was still underway.
