Not Easy Being EC

The Election Commission is dealing with a credibility crisis, and the political establishment may really be to blame

- Soni Mishra

Yet another election announcement, yet another controversy. On October 6, the Election Commission announced the schedule for elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram—collectively dubbed the semifinal before the Lok Sabha elections. However, the commission’s decision to defer its announcement prompted the opposition to claim it was done to let Prime Minister Narendra Modi announce sops at a rally in Ajmer.

The poll announcement was delayed from 12:30pm to 3pm, which the commission said was done to give the media more time to reach the venue. A message about the announcement had gone out to the media just that morning.

However, Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat offered three other reasons. Two related to the delay in publication of the electoral roll of Telangana, which the commission came to know about only that morning. The third was that the Tamil Nadu chief secretary had called him, urging him not to announce date for byelections as a cyclone had been forecast. Sources in the commission said they had to meet to discuss these issues, which caused the delay.

The soft-spoken Rawat, a former IAS officer of the Madhya Pradesh cadre, firmly rebuffed the attacks, saying, “[They] are political creatures. They have to see politics in everything. It is their inherent nature. We have no comment on that.”