Aam Admi Party leader Sanjay Singh has raised questions over the timings of the dates of Lok Sabha polls to be held this year. After the Election Commission (EC) decided to hold a press conference scheduled at 5 p.m to announce the dates of Lok Sabha elections, the AAP leader accused the highest election body of acting on the instructions of the BJP. Singh posted a tweet from his twitter handle asking whether the Election Commission operates from the BJP office.
क्या चुनाव आयोग भाजपा कार्यालय से संचालित होता है?2014 में 5 मार्च को चुनाव की घोषणा हुई,5 दिनो में मोदी जी ने कई रैली, सभा कर लिया, आज ग़ाज़ीयाबाद का भाषण के बाद चुनाव की घोषणा,आचार सहिता के बाद पोस्टर तो उतारने ही पड़ेंगे अब आप कह रहे हैं भाजपा सेना के शौर्य का इस्तेमाल न करें
— Sanjay Singh AAP (@SanjayAzadSln) March 10, 2019
Singh tacitly suggested that the announcement of the election has been delayed to suit PM Modi’s schedule. He said that in 2014 election dates were announced on March 5 while this time the election date is being announced today, after allowing sufficient time to Modi to complete his rallies.
चुनाव आयोग एक निष्पक्ष संस्था के रूप में जाना जाता रहा है मगर कुछ समय से ऐसा लग रहा है जैसे के BJP के कार्यालय से संचालित हो रहा है,क्या चुनाव आयोग को चुनाव की तारीख मोदी जी की रैली देखकर घोसित करनी चाहिए। सांसद @SanjayAzadSln
ररपोर्टर- @mjaved819 pic.twitter.com/tUbCKblSFW— Ajit Tyagi (@_AjitTyagi) March 10, 2019
Raking up the EVM issue, Singh said that several parties including the AAP had met the Election Commission with a request to count the VVPAT slips of the polls where EVM was used but no reply came from the EC.
The Election dates have always been announced in the month of March as during the 2009 and 2004 Lok Sabha elections also the dates were announced on March 2 and March 1 respectively and this time, the election is happening in 7 phases as compared the 9 phases previously.
Addressing the press conference, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said that the EC held talks with the Chief Ministers of all the States and Union Territories and with the officials of other departments to ensure smooth conduct of elections.
The opposition parties seem to have made a habit out of casting aspersions on the Election Commission and the Election process. In fact, their demands for VVPAT and grows into a shrill every time they sense the possibility of an imminent loss. Simultaneously, while when they win, they seem to accept the mandate graciously, every time they lose, they seem to want to country to believe that PM Modi magically tampered with the EVMs only in that election.
With the first phase of Lok Sabha elections beginning on 11th April, one can expect to see several more of such inane statements in the near future.
