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Journalism of Courage
Expressing concern that voters could lose trust in the country’s electoral process, NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar on Thursday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to take steps to ensure public confidence in the poll panel.
“Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been pointing out discrepancies in the electoral rolls by citing examples of constituencies. In this situation, the ECI has to ensure that the public trusts the commission, but it has not taken that stand. If the ECI takes a stand that hampers public trust in the election process, I do not know how many years the country will tolerate this,” Pawar said in Kolhapur.
Pawar’s remarks came before Gandhi held a press conference and attacked the ECI and Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, alleging irregularities in the electoral process by the addition and deletion of votes. The poll denied the charges as “incorrect and baseless”.
Pawar said that his party candidate had been elected to the state Assembly for the last 25 years, and in the neighbouring constituency, a candidate had been elected five times, but both lost by 1,906 votes. “Their margin of loss was the same, so it raises a doubt, but I do not have any proof,” he added.
The NCP (SP) chief said that around 300 Opposition MPs, including him, had taken to the streets to protest some ECI decisions. “We took out a morcha during the previous parliamentary session to protest against the ECI. One should not ignore when 300 MPs take to the streets. Our objective was to ensure that the public’s approach to the ECI should change. They set a condition of meeting only five representatives, which was not proper, so the meeting could not take place,” he said.
During the NCP (SP) rally in Nashik recently, a few party workers showed how votes cast for the party were going to the BJP, Pawar said, adding that this indicated that people were sensing something fishy in the electoral process. “If no collective action is taken to make corrections, it is not necessary that people will maintain silence over it forever. The ECI should take note that people are raising doubts over the election process,” he added.
On whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi should retire from politics as he has turned 75 years old, Pawar said, “I have no right to say that to Modi as I myself continue to be active in politics. Now, I am 85 years old. Those who had made such statements (RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat) are clarifying that they never said so.” Pawar said he wished Modi on his birthday, adding that the Prime Minister had taken part in his 75th birthday celebrations.
