BJP to Congress: Stop allegations against EC

Khammam: BJP Khammam district president Nelluri Koteshwara Rao alleged that the Congress was making unfounded allegations against constitutional institutions, including the Election Commission (EC), whenever it faced setbacks in elections.

Addressing a media conference at the BJP district office on Monday, Rao said political parties should not use constitutional institutions for political purposes and urged the Congress to substantiate its allegations through appropriate legal and institutional forums.

He said questioning the EC and Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) after electoral defeats was not appropriate and referred to instances in Telangana, Karnataka, and Himachal Pradesh where, he claimed, the Congress had come to power under the same electoral system.

Referring to the September 26 meeting of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar and Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, Rao said the EC had stated that decisions at the meeting were taken unanimously.

On a letter sent to the Cabinet Secretary, Rao said the matter concerning the performance and service-related issues of an officer working on deputation should not be linked to policy decisions of the Election Commission without evidence.

Rao also defended the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, saying the exercise should not be described as“vote theft”. He said identifying errors in electoral rolls, removing names of deceased persons, correcting duplicate entries and examining ineligible registrations were part of the process of maintaining electoral rolls.

At the same time, Rao said the rights of eligible voters should be protected during the revision process and that not a single eligible voter should be left out of the electoral rolls. “Political parties have a responsibility to act carefully while commenting on constitutional institutions such as the Election Commission and the judiciary,” he said, adding thatcriticism was part of democracy but unsubstantiated allegations could affect public confidence in institutions.

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