Assam CM Himanta backs CEC, calls charges against Gyanesh Kumar 'political campaign'

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday said allegations of irregularities against chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is a political campaign, saying the Election Commission cannot take any decision when the CEC or other election commissioners are in a minority.

“So, to send a message across the country that the chief election commissioner has taken a decision unilaterally doesn’t fit in the constitutional scheme,” Sarma told reporters here.

“I don’t think that the chief election commissioner can take any decision without consulting the other two election commissioners. So, targeting the chief election commissioner shows only the frustration of the opposition and ‘dimagi Naxals’,” he said.


Sarma conceded that there could be differences during discussions before reaching a decision. “But if any decision has arrived by the Election Commission, it must be on consensus or by a majority opinion,” he said. “That is why targeting the chief election commissioner is a political campaign.”

The Election Commission found itself in a fresh controversy after a media report on Wednesday said that election commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi objected to several decisions of the poll body in recent months.

In a statement defending itself, the Election Commission on Wednesday underscored that “differing views are a normal part of deliberation in any institution,” adding that all its decisions were “an outcome of the unanimous decisions of the full commission in the past one year.”

The poll panel stated the ECI is a multi-member constitutional body that functions under the strict mandate of Article 324 of the Constitution, statutory rules and established institutional conventions.

Any operational queries or inputs raised by commission members during draft stages are part of standard administrative practice aimed at safeguarding voter rights, it said.

Highlighting certain specific internal notes/observations spread over the period of 10 months while overlooking the much larger body of approvals, decisions, instructions and initiatives give only one part of the picture, the ECI said.

The allegations come at a time when the commission is carrying out an electoral roll revision (including SIR) across the country.