New Delhi: Amid rising questions around its independence and concerns of ignoring violations of the Model Code of Conduct, the Election Commission of India in its first press conference since the 2024 Lok Sabha elections was announced said that it had never gone missing, and said “mischievous narratives” were created around allegations of faulty electoral rolls, EVMs and failure to furnish voter turnout data. It said one of the major learnings of the election was that the poll body should be prepared to “fight false narratives”.
Chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar began the press conference on Monday (June 3) by addressing social media memes that had referred to the poll body as “Laapata Gentlemen” – because it did not act against top leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) including Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a campaign that was marked by its communal narrative.
“On a lighter vein on social media now you will see various memes with the tagline perhaps “Laapataa Gentlemen”. We were never out, we were always here. We chose to interact with you through our press notes,” he said.
“This is for the first time we issued over 100 press notes, which has never been done. We have been interacting with you from behind the scene. So today we thought we will come and interact with you about the incredible story of the general elections and also try to answer whatever happened during the seven phases both positive and negative.”
This was the first press conference during the Lok Sabha elections. The last one was on March 16, when the Election Commission announced the schedule for the polls.
While Kumar did not specifically refer to the highly communal campaign run by the BJP, he said that the commission had acted against Model Code violations by publishing “suo motu, a detailed report on the enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct”.
The commission said that over 90% of 495 major complaints were disposed and notices were issued to “several top leaders, FIR against many, and transfer of top officials to sanitise the election space”.
It also said that it issued advisories to parties to ensure top campaigners set good examples and correct the discourse.
Later during the question-answer session, while a comment was sought by a reporter from Aaj Tak on the use of religion in campaigning, Kumar did not address it in his answers.
Fake and mischievous narrative
Kumar displayed a slide called “mischievous narratives” when asked about his learnings from the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
“There was a mischievous narrative that we failed to understand. We stopped money, violence, misinformation, and violation of MCC. But we did not know about this and so we could not stop it. Let me show you a picture,” he said and then went on to show a slide saying “mischievous narrative”.
“There was a pattern and everyone was swept away by it. And we could not understand it. Should we conduct elections or fight this? The pattern started with the allegation that before the election started that the voter list was faulty. The country should see this pattern. I had said on March 16 also that there is a market for lies. But we did not know that this would burst on our heads. After the allegation of faulty voter list. Tell us where the voter list was faulty. There may be some errors of 2-4% in some villages. But 95-98% there was no error. But no, let us try to light a fire. Then after elections started came allegations of faulty EVMs. I am very serious about this. This could have spread anarchy in the country. Where political workers are charged, if they find out can you imagine the sentiments that can spread. This was a case from 2023 and the reply to that came four days before the first phase of elections. The same thing happened in 2019. Why wasn’t this raised between 2019-2024. There is pattern, there is a design, I’m not saying it’s a toolkit. But there is a design. Let us understand this,” he said.
On concerns raised about the Election Commission’s delay in furnishing absolute numbers of the voter turnout till the end of the first five phases, Kumar said that the figures were always available.
“There was no delay in voter turnout data. Assembly constituency (AC) wise and PC (parliamentary constituency) wise data was available at every moment. What was not available was the total of the PC and AC at the top of the voter turnout app. You have the total electors number, you have the percentage, so take out the total number if it is not there. But what was the atmosphere (mahaul) that was created? The voter list is faulty, the EVMs are faulty, there are no men at the table of the ARO (Assistant Returning Officer). What is this happening? This is a fake narrative that is being run and we were not prepared to understand this before. But now we have understood it,” he said.
Kumar continued that the learnings from the election include that the election should be completed earlier before the summer begins.
“We could have done this earlier. Not in this heat. Second, to fight the fake narrative. We had expected that these attacks would come from outside the country. We had prepared for that. But these attacks came from within the country,” he said.
Referring to Congress MP Jairam Ramesh’s allegation that Union home minister Amit Shah had been “calling” at least 150 DMs in a move to intimidate them, Kumar said without naming Ramesh that evidence needs to be provided.
“An atmosphere (mahaul) was made that in large numbers RO’s were influenced. How can this happen in this country? Those who are working under such extreme heat in this country can they influence 500-600-900 people in this country? If they can tell us we will punish them. They should tell us who these DMs are. It cannot be that you spread such rumours and place seeds of doubts in everyone’s minds.”
Kumar said that all demands of the multiparty delegation to the Election Commission on Sunday were accepted including CCTV monitoring, verification of slips and tags of EVMs and checking will be done.
“The counting process is a robust process,” he said.
While the opposition had also demanded that the results of the postal ballots that are counted 30 minutes before EVMs be declared, Kumar said that the system cannot be changed. He added that in the majority of the polling booths, counting of postal ballots is completed before that of EVMs begins.
“What can we do?”
In response to a question asked by a reporter from Dainik Bhaskar on the elections being declared unopposed in Gujarat’s Surat and the Congress candidate in Madhya Pradesh’s Indore withdrawing his nomination and joining the BJP on the last day of withdrawing nominations, Kumar said that his hands were tied.
“The legislative scheme is absolutely clear. If you want a fundamental conceptual answer, our effort is that there should be a contest everywhere. There is no doubt about that. But after nomination, if candidates withdraw what can we do? If they also are under pressure, if they have been kept shut somewhere that is a different matter. But if they withdraw on their own will what can we do?” he said.
The Wire has reported that in Indore, three candidates, including two independents and one from the Janata Congress Party, said that “fake signatures” were obtained on withdrawal forms, while calls were made to pressure them to not contest.
