NEW DELHI: The Election Commission has rejected reports of differences within the poll panel over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR), saying all decisions related to the exercise were taken “unanimously”.The poll body clarified that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi did raise concerns over some aspects of voter roll deletion and database handling, but these did not amount to disagreement with the final decisions taken by the Commission.The clarification came after an Indian Express report triggered a row by claiming that the two Election Commissioners had raised objections to the Commission’s decisions 14 times over the past 10 months during the SIR exercise.EC sources told PTI that all decisions taken by the Election Commission, including those related to the SIR, were unanimous and had the approval of Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi as well as Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.Responding to queries, officials said Sandhu and Joshi had flagged issues related to the deletion of names from electoral rolls in various states and the handling of voter data.Officials also pointed out that the law governing the Election Commission, as well as a Supreme Court judgment, provides that decisions should, as far as possible, be taken unanimously. Where unanimity is not possible, the majority view prevails.
Opposition slams CEC
Meanwhile, opposition sharpened its attack on the Election Commission over the SIR, claiming it was meant to target electors not aligned to the BJP and its allies.Urging the Supreme Court to take suo motu cognizance of the issue, several opposition parties attacked Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and accused him of becoming a puppet of those in power.In a social media post, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav accused the poll panel of hatching a conspiracy to “wipe out democracy.”“This is an extremely serious news that in the past 10 months, 2 Election Commissioners have registered their objections 14 times against the Election Commission’s wrong decisions,” Akhilesh said.“This directly means that all Election Commissioners are not able to perform their rightful duties. If the members of an independent body do not have the freedom to carry out just actions or if there is no hearing of theirs, then these are extremely fatal and dangerous circumstances for democracy. For some people to betray democracy by becoming puppets of those in power is a grave constitutional crime. This is nothing less than a conspiracy to wipe out democracy,” he added.
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Mamata Trinamool Congress (MTMC) also slammed CEC Kumar and said that the opposition should reintroduce the impeachment motion against Kumar in Parliament.“Five months ago, more than 60 Rajya Sabha Members of Parliament… when only 50 were needed, wrote to the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha moving a motion to remove the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, that was five months ago. Now today, after this big news break that two Election Commissioners objected to many of the CEC’s actions, it’s time to bring out the Rajya Sabha motion to impeach the CEC and save democracy,” MTMC’s Derek O’ O’Brien said.The issue is likely to escalate further as leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi has been vehement in his criticism of the Election Commission and the SIR process, alleging that it has resulted in the denial of voting rights.
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