New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday accused the Congress of “undermining the impartiality” of the Election Commission of India (ECI) by “politically rewarding” Chief Election Commissioners, Election Commissioners and Electoral Officers and even bestowing the Padma Vibhushan on a sitting CEC, during the previous UPA government.
Addressing a press conference, Union Minister and BJP leader Piyush Goyal asserted that the NDA government, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has granted the Election Commission complete autonomy to function independently in the national and public interest.
“The NDA government has never attempted to offer political benefits to any appointed Election Commissioner. It has allowed them to work honestly and has never committed the wrongdoing of offering them political positions in violation of the legal provisions,” Goyal said.
The Union Minister also added: “The Congress appointed a Chief Election Commissioner as a candidate on its party ticket, inducted another into the Union Cabinet, and appointed two Chief Election Commissioners as Governors. On one occasion, despite the Chief Election Commissioner’s complaint that an Election Commissioner working under him was acting entirely like a Congress agent, the Congress government refused to remove that official.”
“We have rarely seen such a degree of bias in any government’s conduct as the Congress has demonstrated,” Goyal remarked.
The Union Minister said that during T.N. Seshan’s tenure as the Chief Election Commissioner, the Congress used to praise his integrity and fearlessness, “but in 1999, it gave him the opportunity to contest on a Congress ticket against L. K. Advani.”
Goyal asked that if Seshan had been administering the electoral system with such integrity as an Election Commissioner, was fielding him as a party candidate in such an important election, against a leader like Advani, not a way of rewarding him?
“M.S. Gill served as the Chief Election Commissioner for five years, from 1996 to 2001. Interestingly, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan. In 2000, while he was still the sitting Chief Election Commissioner when he was conferred India’s second-highest civilian honour. Was this not a kind of reward for sycophancy?” the Union Minister asked.
“M.S. Gill joined the Congress three years after retirement. He was elected to Rajya Sabha in 2004 and was made the Union Minister in 2008,” Goyal said while accusing the Congress of misusing Election Commissioners.
“This also appears to be a case of some kind of deal-making,” he remarked.
Noting that R.K. Trivedi’s tenure as the Chief Election Commissioner ended on December 31, 1985, the BJP leader said: “Within two months, on February 26, 1986, the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government appointed him Governor of Gujarat.”
Recalling that in 2005, the then UPA government “repeatedly claimed” that Sonia Gandhi had appointed Naveen Chawla as an Election Commissioner, Goyal asked: “How could Sonia Gandhi appoint him without holding any government position? Who was running the government at that time?”
The Union Minister also said: “In 2009, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) N. Gopalaswami appealed the government to remove Naveen Chawla due to the latter’s partisan conduct and had accused him of favouring the Congress. But despite the appeal, the then government made him the CEC, due to his loyalty to the Congress and Sonia Gandhi.”
Goyal added that Congress’ track record is not limited to Election Commissioners.
“Tika Ram Meena was the Chief Electoral Officer of Keralam. A year later, he was brought into Congress’ manifesto team in Rajasthan and made a member of the Congress party. Similarly, Ratan U. Kelkar was the Chief Electoral Officer of Keralam during the recent state elections. Within a month of the elections, in May 2026, the current Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan, appointed him as his Secretary,” the Union Minister said while asking: “Isn’t this a case of political quid pro quo, where the message is, ‘Help us in the elections, and we will immediately appoint you to a position?'”
Goyal alleged: “In this way, Congress has repeatedly misused Chief Election Commissioners, Election Commissioners and election officers, encouraged bias, and ultimately rewarded them with positions — appointing them as Governors or Union Ministers, inducting them into the party, or giving them election tickets to contest polls.”
Maintaining that earlier the governments appointed Election Commissioners without consultation or discussion with anyone, the Union Minister said: “It was the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that introduced a new law in 2023. Under this law, the Leader of Opposition was also made a member of the selection committee. Now, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition sit together to decide who should become an Election Commissioner and who should become the Chief Election Commissioner.”
–IANS
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