Congress slams EC as 'biased' ahead of elections

The Congress Party on Thursday criticised the Election Commission of India (ECI) for being "unabashedly partisan" by acting like the middleman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

According to a release, the party charged that the Special Intensive Review of electoral rolls in Bihar ahead of the elections was aimed at disenfranchising about two crore voters who may not be able to furnish the documents the Commission is seeking.

Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here today, senior party leaders including Chairman of the Media and Publicity Department Pawan Khera, Bihar Congress president Rajesh Kumar and the AICC in-charge for Bihar Krishna Allavaru stated that the role of the Commission had come under strong suspicion and any shred of credibility that had been left has also gone away.

Pawan Khera observed that the 'SIR' was a clear conspiracy to disenfranchise the Bihar voters and deny them their basic right to vote. He noted that the ECI was acting like the puppet of the BJP government.

Khera took strong exception to the way the Chief Election Commissioner, Gyanesh Kumar, dealt with a delegation of eleven parties belonging to the INDIA bloc. He told the CEC that he should leave a better legacy for the future lest his name be dumped in the dustbin of history.

"The way ECI is being run poses a serious threat to democracy - not just against the Opposition, but against each and every voter", the senior Congress leader warned, while pointing out that the Constitution defines everybody's limits, and no one, including the Commission, should try to breach those limits, as per the release.