CEC Kumar should be prosecuted for treason for allowing 'unfair' polls: Priyanka Gandhi

Wayanad: Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday demanded that CEC Gyanesh Kumar should be criminally prosecuted for the offence of "treason" for allegedly intentionally allowing an "unfair election" to take place by deleting around 13 crore voters from the electoral rolls.

Vadra, speaking to reporters here, said that anybody who "plays around" with the democratic process of elections is committing treason against the nation.

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"That is our very very clear stand. I do not think anybody in that position should have legal protection in the way that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) has, if they have done illegal acts," the Congress MP from Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency said.

She claimed that tampering with electoral rolls and deleting around 13 crore voters from it was "a criminal act against democracy, against the constitution and against the nation".

She further said that since criminal acts fall under a particular law, and people are usually tried and prosecuted for them, why should the CEC have any protection against it.

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"If he (CEC) has done an illegal act, he has been fully aware that this is happening under his nose, his colleagues have brought it to his attention, he has ignored it and intentionally allowed an unfair election to take place."

"He should be criminally prosecuted just like any other criminal, and he should be tried for treason. This is my very clear stand," she said.

Two Election Commissioners, Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi, had red-flagged issues relating to deletion of names under the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and raised objections to the decision-making process 14 times in the past few months, according to a report in Indian Express.

Reacting to it, the EC has asserted that differing views and observations are a normal part of deliberation in any institution and all its orders "are an outcome of the unanimous decisions of the full Commission in the past one year".

However, ECI officials have said that the poll body was unanimous in its decisions related to the pan-India SIR of voters' list.

On Wednesday, Vadra had said that if Kumar was aware of elections being "rigged" and allowed it to happen, then its "treachery to the nation" and "an act of treason".

She had also said that if manipulation of voters' lists and deletion of voters has taken place then the people who are responsible for it have to be taken to task and they have to be held responsible for it.