“The Election Commission is not a private club. All the three commissioners have demonstrated their incompetence to run a Constitutional office,” said Bharat Jodo Abhiyan convenor Yogendra Yadav. In an interview to Barkha Dutt for her YouTube channel, he did not mince his words. The CEC Gyanesh Kumar is undoubtedly a villain but the other two commissioners are also not heroes. In all fairness, they should all resign, he declared.
BJP leaders, however, hailed the press note and claimed it exposed the Opposition which, they said, had launched an unfounded attack on the Election Commission after The Indian Express on 23 September reported that two of the three commissioners flagged numerous illegal and unconstitutional acts in the ECI. The report stated that the two commissioners had put their objections in writing 14 times in the past 10 months. The Election Commission was not taking unanimous decisions and was divided.
BJP leaders, therefore, grasped at the ‘show of unity’ in the ECI on Saturday, which released a photograph of the three commissioners sitting together but without the trademark grin on the face of the CEC Gyanesh Kumar or the hints of a smile on the other two seen in the past. They looked solemn yesterday, if not grim.
That was, however, enough for NDA leaders to exult and post identical messages claiming that the Opposition had been exposed.
“The photo answered all the innuendos,” posted BJP MP Tejasvi Surya on X. It is now clear that The Indian Express played a mischief and did a hit job, exulted investor and former Infosys executive T. Mohandas Pai. Andhra Pradesh chief minister and BJP ally N. Chandrababu Naidu in a statement claimed that the unanimous clarification issued by the Election Commission has put to rest all the misconceptions surrounding it.
