The Hindu : Front Page : EC a `tool of Congress': Chautala

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 18, 2005

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EC a `tool of Congress': Chautala

CHANDIGARH, FEB. 17. Launching a scathing attack on the Election Commission, the Haryana Chief Minister, Om Prakash Chautala, today said it had become a "tool of the Congress made of retired bureaucrats rewarded for their loyalty to the party."

Addressing a press conference here, his first after the February 3 Assembly elections, he alleged that "retired people get EC posts for six years and go all out to help the Congress. After their term in the EC, they eye a Rajya Sabha nomination as an incentive."

He said Haryana had been targeted by the Commission, and that its observers, none of whom had "dared" to visit Bihar and Jharkhand, visited the State.

He claimed that the Commission had ordered a repoll in six polling booths of the State without any recommendation by the observers. "They fixed the repoll for February 23 in Haryana whereas repoll in Bihar was ordered for the next day itself," Mr. Chautala said adding, "this itself shows [the] EC's intentions."

Mr. Chautala said he would soon convene an all-party meeting to discuss the Commission's role in the conduct of the elections. "My government had a term of five years as per the Constitution, but it was reduced by six months [three months each during the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections] by the EC when all development also came to a halt."

He said that the question arose whether the Commission could reduce the tenure of a government elected for five years as per the Constitution.

"Even before the poll process started the EC had made up its mind to vitiate the atmosphere in the State through various directions on posting of particular officers [selected by the EC] or giving Z-plus category security to [the] Haryana Congress working president, Randeep Surjewala, pitted against him [Mr. Chautala] at Narwana," he alleged.

Mr. Chautala also questioned the Commission's decision of the EC of holding counting in Haryana on February 27, a long gap of 24 days after the polling.

"Though Haryana has always had peaceful polls in the past, the EC could have planned the schedule in a much better and practical way to avoid the long gap as developmental and routine works have come to a standstill."

It was strange the Commission had put a ban on selections made by constitutional bodies such as the Haryana Public Service Commission and Haryana Subordinate Services Selection Commission and even of posts the selection process of which was started much before the elections were announced on December 17. — PTI

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