India News | Gravest Threat to Democracy Comes from 'take Over' of EC by PM, HM: Congress

New Delhi, Feb 19 (PTI) The Congress on Wednesday claimed that the "gravest threat" to Indian democracy comes from the manner in which the Election Commission has been simply "taken over" by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and asserted that all parties of the INDIA bloc have no difference of opinion on this issue.

The opposition party made the assertion after an over seven-hour meeting of AICC general secretaries and in-charges, chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, during which the issue of independence and functioning of the Election Commission was discussed at length.

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Briefing reporters after the meeting at AICC headquarters of Indira Bhawan here, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "We discussed the manner in which the Election Commission has been systematically emasculated, weakened, its powers taken away and the manner in which the Election Commission has refused to share complete information on electoral rolls with political parties in a form that can be systematically analysed."

"There is great fear, great suspicion and we have clear evidence that in state after state, lakhs and lakhs of voters are bogus voters, there are genuine names that have been deleted, lakhs of bogus names have been added. This was true in Haryana, this was certainly true in Maharashtra, it is also true in Delhi," Ramesh said.

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With the Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourning the pleas against the appointments of the chief election commissioner (CEC) and election commissioners (ECs) under the 2023 law, Ramesh said the Congress will continue to take whatever steps it can take and right now the most important step is this case pending before the apex court.

"We will of course keep arguing in the Supreme Court. It is a fundamental issue which our leaders -- Mr Rahul Gandhi has raised in the Lok Sabha and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has raised -- and there is no way we are going to weaken or dilute our stand," Ramesh said.

"We believe that the gravest threat to the Indian democracy now comes from the manner of the functioning of the Election Commission and the manner in which the EC has been simply taken over by the prime minister and the Union Home minister," he said.

Ramesh asserted that other parties are with the Congress on the issue and that there is no difference of opinion among the INDIA bloc allies.

"… in the days to come when Parliament convenes, we will have a collective (deliberation)...we already have a collective position. This is an issue which cannot be allowed to simply fade away. This is a fundamental issue. It is the responsibility of the EC to provide the electoral roll to the political party. The EC has been taking the position that it is the job of the political party," he said.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the pleas against the appointments of the CEC and the ECs under the 2023 law with a bench of Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh indicating that the matter would be listed after the Holi festival break due to paucity of time. However, no date was fixed for hearing the matter.

On February 17, the government appointed EC Gyanesh Kumar as the next CEC.

Kumar is the first CEC to be appointed under the new law and his term would run till January 26, 2029, days before the EC is expected to announce the schedule of the next Lok Sabha election.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)