PATNA: Bihar chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav on Jan.2 warned the chief election commissioner T.N. Seshan of “grave Consequences” if the latter postponed the assembly elections in the state on the ground of photo identity cards. “We shall not only move the high court of the land, but our people will also give in rebellion against the dictatorial attitude of Seshan $0 that democracy does not slip away from our hands,” Laloo Prasad said.
A visibly annoyed chief minister charged the CEC with discriminating against the two Janata Dalruled states of Bihar and Orissa by adopting the policy of “pick and choose” while fixing the deadlines for preparation of the photo Leaders.
“If Seshan feels that polls without such I cards are meaningless then he must cancel the recent elections in Andhra Pradesh, Kamataka, Sikkim and Goa,” he said and asked how the CEC could apply different yardsticks for different states.
Prasad was reacting to Seshan’s Observation here that there would be no notification for elections to Bihar assembly if the government failed to certify by Jan.15 that photo identity cards had been supplied to the six crore voters of the state. Yadav said that he had talks with his Gujarat counterpart regarding the I card issue. The Gujarat chief minister told him that he would move the Supreme Court and would not give the certificate regarding supply of photo I card to voters for the coming assembly elections in the state.
He said President’s rule could be imposed in any state only in cases of emergency and reiterated that the Constitution did not make identity cards mandatory for holding of elections.
Besides, the EC did not have the power to defer the election on the ground that the cards were not made available to the voters, he said.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 6, 1995
