WhyNOTA

Peak irony! People were protesting to demand water in Indore. Police brought water canons to disperse them.

Kerala has never before witnessed such an appointment being made immediately after an election, almost as a reward for services rendered. The development now lends credence to the LDF’s allegation that the Election Commission had adopted several biased and dubious positions in favour of the UDF during the election period. It had earlier become controversial when the BJP’s seal appeared on a letter sent to political parties instead of the Election Commission’s official seal. When similar appointments were made in West Bengal, Rahul Gandhi had tweeted that “the bigger the theft in the black market dealings between the BJP and the Election Commission, the bigger the reward.” The AICC had also described the appointments as a shameless nexus and collusion. Rahul Gandhi and the All India Congress Committee must now clarify whether what happened in Kerala is not similarly a shameless collusion between the Congress, the BJP, and the Election Commission. In the name of SIR, millions of votes were deleted in Kerala. The Left had raised objections at the time itself against the Commission’s approach of deleting genuine voters while retaining ineligible names. The Commission had also insisted on ending voter registration a week before the previously announced deadline, without informing anyone in advance. The suspicion that this haste to finalise the voter list came only after ensuring the inclusion of all UDF votes has now become stronger. The BJP seal appearing on the Election Commission’s letter was another such intervention. There were also several confusions in allocating symbols to LDF candidates, including in the Palakkad constituency. Complaints were raised that many LDF symbols were printed on the voting machines in a manner that made them unclear. Kerala also witnessed lakhs of election duty staff being denied their voting rights. Even weeks after the election, the Commission was unwilling to accurately release the voting percentage. Allegations were also raised that strong rooms had been opened. This appointment strengthens the suspicion that there was a planned intervention behind all these developments. In West Bengal, the appointment of Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal as Chief Secretary and Subrata Gupta, who led the SIR exercise, as the Chief Minister’s Principal Advisor immediately after the elections had invited widespread criticism. Opposition parties, including the CPI(M), had raised the issue nationally. The AICC had then demanded the introduction of a cooling-off period before senior officials entrusted with election responsibilities could be appointed to high posts under the victorious government. The Congress party and Rahul Gandhi, who strongly criticised the Bengal appointments at the national level, must clarify how they view a similar move in Kerala. At a time when the BJP government at the Centre is attempting to undermine the neutrality of the Election Commission, Congress-led state governments are also carrying out similar interventions. Election Commissions are increasingly becoming systems that take decisions according to the wishes of political leadership. Strong protest is being registered against the interventions of both Union and State governments that undermine the very credibility of the Election Commission.