EC rejects BJP’s bias charge, backs Varanasi DM’s call to cancel Modi rally

Mangalore Today News Network

Varanasi, May 10, 2014: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) VS Sampath on Saturday defended the Varanasi District Magistrate, Pranjal Yadav, who cancelled a rally by Narendra Modi in the temple town over security reasons earlier this week, saying that he made no mistake.

In his first ever interview, Sampath also told IBN18 Network Editor-in-Chief Rajdeep Sardesai that the decision on cancelling the rally was a unanimous one, denying reports of a split within the EC.

"Decision of the Commission was to look at the decision of district authority and it was found that no wrong decision was taken by them," Sampath said. "All the decisions on Varanasi were taken collectively. This is a three-member commission in which everyone enjoys equal powers in terms of decision-making. In the last two years, there is not a single decision that is not being taken unanimously. After a thorough study of the whole decision making, we cross-checked with the District Magistrate, and then the final decision was taken," he said.

The CEC also refuted the BJP’s allegations that it was biased, saying that such charges against the poll body were not new. "This is not the first time that these kind of allegations are made against the EC," he said, also denying charges that the EC had favoured the Congress by allowing Rahul Gandhi to hold a roadshow where Modi had been barred.

"Security perception relating to a leader is personality-specific. There is a team called Advanced Security Liaison which was referred to," Sampath explained, justifying the decision to cancel Modi’s rally.

BJP leader Arun Jaitley had earlier in the day criticised the EC for allowing Rahul’s roadshow in Varanasi. "The roadshow is passing through the area where we were denied permission. The Election Commission has to face it that in Benianagh the security reasons are valid only for BJP and not for the rest of the parties. This itself proves that it was not due to any security constraints but it was due to political reasons that we were stopped from holding rallies," he had said.

Sampath, however, said that the EC would not be intimidated. "No one has ever questioned me. People are afraid of the EC today as much as they were at any point of time," he said.

Sampath also laid to rest the controversy over Rahul’s presence inside a polling booth in Amethi as it voted on May 7, the phase eight of elections. "Rahul was present inside the booth when a voting machine was malfunctioning. This was found after due investigations," he said. "In Modi’s case (an FIR was filed against Modi for displaying his inked finger along with the BJP’s lotus symbol outside a polling booth in Gujarat after casting his vote even as polling continued across the state), the matter is clearly mentioned in the law. The issue is not of 100 metres (the area around the polling booth where no party symbols can be displayed), but of holding a press conference in the poll area when the polling is on. This is in violation of Section 124 of Representation of Peoples Act," he said.