NEW DELHI: In a startling dis closure of the Government’s at tempts to arm twist a constitutional authority into taking decisions favorable to it, Chief Election Commissioner T.N. Seshan has accused Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and the Congress party of making attempts to influence him to postpone the Assembly elections in the four erstwhile BJP ruled States.

The Center had turned the Election Commission into a multi member body to render him powerless and appointed a close family friend of the Prime Minister as ‘one of the two election commissioners, he has said in his petition field in the Supreme Court challenging the validity of the Presidential ordinance of October 1.

“Attempts made by the leaders of the Congress party to influence the petitioner miserably failed. A request was made in the highest level for postponement. The leaders of the ruling party including the Prime Minister appeared to be irritated at the unbending attitude of the petitioner for any kind of influence, “it said.

Seshan has pointed out the fairness with which he has been en forcing the model code of conduct for political parties. The Commission had lodged a protest even against the U.P. Governor Motilal Vora for violation of this Code. Earlier, it had sought to take action against the Tripura officials, who had attended the election meeting of the Union Minister Santosh Mohan Deb. Then, there was the incident of trying to get Pranab Mukherjee elected, the leaders of the four States in which the Commission announced elections, made urgent requests for postponement.

The Congress party was not expecting the announcement of elections and was not prepared to face the same.

To prevent the chief election com missioner from taking any action against the free misutilization of the official machinery for the elections, it resorted to ordinance making powers to “suit the needs of the ruling party.”

Chief Justice M.N. Venkatchaliah directed at the Supreme court that the petition of the Chief Election Commissioner should come up for hearing on Nov.15,

The BJP has endorsed Chief Election Commissioner T.N.Seshan’s position on the recent Presidential ordinance.

Article extracted from this publication >>  November 5, 1993