Instead of offering clarification on crucial issues, the poll panel chief accused of attacking opposition leaders
NEW DELHI – Questioning the partisan role of Chief Election Commissioner, Gyaneshwar Kumar Gupta, Opposition leaders said he has failed to answer even a single question raised by the opposition parties.
They noted that during the press conference on Sunday, the CEC acted more like a spokesperson of the BJP than as the head of a constitutional body.
Addressing a press conference at the Constitution Club here on Monday, the Opposition leaders including Gaurav Gogoi, Dr Naseer Hussain, Mahua Moitra, Sanjay Singh, Arvind Sawant, Tiruchi Siva, Manoj Jha and John Brittas regretted that instead of addressing the grave concerns of the people about the fairness of the electoral process, the CEC had attacked the opposition.
The Opposition leaders said the CEC gave no clarification or comment on the Supreme Court order of August 14, which rejected all arguments made by the Election Commission to prevent the release of basic data of the 65 lakh voters deleted in Bihar. They pointed out that the CEC offered no clarification or comment on the allegations of voter fraud in Mahadevapura made by Rahul Gandhi, except to reiterate his legally questionable demand for the data to be submitted via affidavit. Furthermore, the CEC refused to answer any hard questions regarding why no inquiry or investigation had taken place into the allegations of voter fraud, they added.
The Opposition leaders said the ECI has completely failed in discharging its constitutional duty of ensuring a free and fair electoral process in the country. It has now become clear that the ECI is not being led by officers who can ensure a level playing field. On the contrary, they added that those who lead the ECI divert and thwart any attempt at a meaningful inquiry into voter fraud and instead opt to intimidate those who challenge the ruling party.
Gaurav Gogoi of Congress said the CEC was not able to answer any questions but was running away from its responsibility. Instead of answering the questions posed to the Election Commission of India, the CEC went on attacking the opposition, he said pointing out that the CEC remained quiet on several issues like how 70 lakh votes were added in Maharashtra within a span of 5 months, why the EC decided to delete CCTV footage within 45 days, how one lakh fake voters were added in Mahadevapura Assembly segment and why Aadhaar card was not accepted as valid proof of identity.
“It is clear that the ECI is under the command of partisan officials rather than non-partisan ones,” he said, while adding that this is why the commission resists any inquiry into voter fraud.
Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party disclosed that his party had complained to the Election Commission in 2022 along with 18,000 affidavits stating that the votes of his party’s supporters had been deleted. But, he added, nothing has happened. Referring to the CEC seeking an affidavit from Rahul Gandhi, he asked what happened to the 18,000 affidavits submitted by the SP way back in 2022.
Mahua Moitra of the All India Trinamool Congress said that her party supremo Mamata Banerjee had raised the issue of duplicate EPIC cards way back in February, but nothing had happened till now. She said the CEC’s press conference on Sunday was a shameful display of puppetry by him. She said he should leave the job of attacking the opposition to his political masters.
Manoj Jha of the Rashtriya Janata Dal said that there was complete erosion of faith in the ECI. He also said that the CEC deliberately chose to address a press conference on Sunday just to try to divert attention from the Voter Adhikar Yatra which began around the same time in Bihar.
Tiruchi N. Siva of the DMK said that ECI was empowered to prevent any interference. He said the ECI has come under the scanner. Referring to the CEC’s press conference, he said, instead of offering clarification, more questions have cropped up.
Arvind Sawant of the Shiv Sena-UBT alleged that during the press conference, the CEC was behaving like the spokesperson of the BJP. He said the CEC had no answers as to how 70 lakh votes were added within a span of 5 months in Maharashtra.
John Brittas of the CPM said that the CEC has forfeited his right to hold that position. He noted that he had declared a war on opposition parties.
Sanjay Singh of the Aam Aadmi Party said that there was no logic in what CEC said during the press conference. It was devoid of any facts, he said and asked how it was possible that while 65 lakh votes were deleted in the SIR exercise in Bihar, not a single new voter was added. He said, similarly the ECI had deleted 42,000 votes in the New Delhi constituency before the Delhi Assembly elections.
