Team EC visits Kalam to clear air on Chhapra

‘‘The Commission did not complain against the government. As a constitutional body, it was the Commission’s responsibility to give the highest constitutional authority in the country the correct and entire picture (on Chhapra),’’ sources in the EC said after Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy, along with his colleagues B.B. Tandon and N. Gopalaswami, visited Kalam this afternoon.

It is understood that the President had asked for a ‘‘clarification’’ from the Commission on the grave charges levelled against the functioning of the key constitutional body.

Sources said, the EC officials informed the President that the May 10, 2004 order to countermand the Chhapra polls was ‘‘unanimous’’. They also pointed out that such a quasi-judicial order could be challenged in the court of law but that the Chhapra order has gone unchallenged till now.

The officials also submitted the Commission’s detailed report, a copy of Saptarishi’s report and that of the two-member inquiry panel which gave booth-wise details of rigging in the constituency.

Following Saptarishi’s allegations that Tandon had made anti-Yadav remarks during a meeting called to decide on the repolling, Krishnamurthy asserted that he was himself present and ‘‘they (Tandon and Gopalaswami) did not say anything of that sort as is being attributed to them.’’

The EC’s position was further strengthened today when Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj denied having received any letter from Saptarishi — Laloo has demanded the resignation of Tandon and Gopalaswami based on the allegations made in this letter.

Sources also said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has taken a grim view of the developments.