WE MUST LEAVE POLITICAL PROCESSES TO POLITICIANS

INTERVIEW O.P. RAWAT former chief election commissioner

- SONI MISHRA

Q/ There has been criticism of the Election Commission’s role in granting the Shiv Sena symbol and party name to the Eknath Shinde faction.
A/ When the EC has information to believe there has been a split in a political party, it starts proceedings under Paragraph 15 of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968. The first such case was of the Congress in 1969 when it split over the presidential election—one group fielded V.V. Giri and the other backed [Neelam] Sanjeeva Reddy. The matter came to the EC. It applied four tests—organisational strength, legislative strength, compliance to the party’s constitution and inner party democracy. Based on that, the EC took a decision that Congress(J) was the real Congress. Congress(O)’s Sadiq Ali went to the Supreme Court challenging the decision, and the court upheld the decision, which was solely based on legislative strength.