New Delhi, Feb 2 Just three days before the Delhi Assembly election on February 5, the Congress on Sunday constituted an eight-member team to maintain a close watch on the exercise for fair play, a move that appeared to question the Election Commission of India’s neutrality.
A circular signed by AICC General Secretary K.C. Venugopal claimed that the Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts (EAGLE) would monitor “the conduct of free and fair elections by the Election Commission of India.”
This committee will first take up the Maharashtra voters' list manipulation issue, and submit a detailed report to the leadership at the earliest, it said.
EAGLE will also analyse past elections in other states and proactively monitor upcoming elections and all other issues related to the conduct of free and fair elections in the country, it said.
The group includes: Ajay Maken, Digvijaya Singh, Abhishek Singhvi, Praveen Chakravarty, Pawan Khera, Gurdeep Singh Sappal, Nitin Raut and Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy.
The constitution of the Congress panel comes close to the ruling AAP in Delhi alleging EC’s bias in favour of the BJP.
Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal raised doubts about the EC’s intention to conduct free and fair elections, claiming that CEC Rajiv Kumar was favouring the BJP as he was looking for a post-retirement job.
Congress MP Imran Masood had backed Kejriwal’s claims, asserting that the ECI was indeed working with a bias against Opposition parties.
Talking to IANS, Masood said, "It’s true that the ECI is operating with bias, and Opposition parties have been voicing this concern for a long time. There’s no doubt that the ECI is partial.”
Earlier, the Congress had submitted a 12-page memorandum to the EC highlighting two key issues related to the Maharashtra Assembly elections that were won by the BJP-Shiv Sena-NCP combine.
The memorandum alleged arbitrary voter list changes, including deletion and addition of over 10,000 voters per constituency, and raised suspicion over voting percentage increase in the later part of voting. The Congress had questioned how the turnout jumped from 58.22 per cent to 65.02 per cent late in the polling process.
Even after its defeat in Haryana, the Congress had raised doubts over the fairness of the electoral process by alleging manipulation of EVMs.
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