By Suchak Patel
Ahmedabad: Ten minutes before a March 2024 meeting to appoint two election commissioners to the Election Commission Of India (ECI), the selection panel received a shortlist of six names. A longlist had been sent to them only the previous night—it had 212 names.
The selection meeting of the panel comprising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, union home minister Amit Shah and the then leader of the largest opposition party in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury proceeded despite the apparent paucity of time to assess the candidates, and two candidates were picked, their names sent to the President of India, and their appointment letters signed by the President issued hours later.
Now, weeks before state Assembly elections in Maharashtra, Jharkhand and by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Constitutional body responsible for administering union and state elections in India is under a fresh cloud of doubt as the Congress party and others in October 2024 questioned the counting process in the Haryana assembly election.
The Supreme Court dismissed a plea for re-election in 20 seats where the Congress alleged discrepancies in electronic voting machine (EVM) battery levels during the counting process and questioned the integrity of the election result.
The documents, including meeting and agenda notes, that Article 14 accessed through the Right To Information (RTI) Act, 2005, reveal that the appointment of the election commissioners or ECs, who hold pivotal positions of power in determining how and when elections are held, has been partisan, rushed and lacking accountability.
This story was originally published in article-14.com. Read the full story here.
