MUMBAI: (Oct 5) Senior Congress leader Prithviraj Chavan has alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar acted “completely illegally” and violated a parliamentary law on the powers of election commissioners, and sought his removal from the top post in the poll body.
Serious questions were being raised about the Chief Election Commissioner’s functioning, Chavan said, alleging that Kumar was “helping someone illegally win elections due to his biased policies”.
The Congress has been targeting the CEC after it came to light that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected on record at least 14 times over the past 10 months to decisions and orders on the Special Intensive Revision process that they said were issued without their knowledge or recommendation.
Under fire over red flags raised by two of its commissioners, the Election Commission (EC) has asserted that differing views and observations are a part of deliberations in any institution and all its orders carry full legal sanction and follow established statutory procedures.
Targeting Gyanesh Kumar, Chavan, in a post on X on Sunday, said serious questions had been raised over the functioning of the CEC following written objections by two Election Commissioners.
He claimed that the two commissioners had written 14 letters raising complaints about the CEC’s alleged arbitrary functioning.
The law clearly provides that decisions of the Election Commission should be taken unanimously or by majority, the former Maharashtra chief minister noted.
“Therefore, the view expressed by the two Election Commissioners by majority should be accepted as the decision of the Commission,” he said.
“Everything that Gyanesh Kumar Gupta has done during his tenure as Chief Election Commissioner is completely illegal. He has violated the law made by Parliament and the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding the powers of the Commissioners,” the Congress leader charged.
He also alleged that Kumar was helping someone “illegally win elections” through a partisan approach to elections.
“If democracy in India is to be protected, he should be removed immediately,” Chavan added.
Source: PTI News
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