The Election Commission on Tuesday said it did not meet the Rahul Gandhi-led Opposition delegation because no formal appointment had been sought through the prescribed procedure and a subsequent proposal for 240 MPs to meet the Commission at Parliament House Annexe was “unusual” and could not be accepted.
The clarification came after a day of confrontation in central Delhi, where INDIA bloc MPs marched towards Nirvachan Sadan demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation and withdrawal of the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls. Rahul, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and several other Opposition leaders were detained after police stopped the march.
No request before 4 pm
The Commission said no political party had sought an appointment through its duly authorised representative until 4 pm on Tuesday. It said it initially learnt through media reports that some MPs participating in the march wanted to meet the three-member Commission.
Around 4 pm, Delhi Police informed the poll panel that a delegation led by Rahul wanted to meet the Commission and submit a memorandum. Police subsequently conveyed that the proposed delegation comprised 240 MPs and that the meeting was sought at Parliament House Annexe.
The Commission said it considered the proposed arrangement “unusual” and could not accept it because its established protocol requires meetings with political parties to take place on Election Commission premises.
EC explains protocol
According to the poll panel, a procedure governing meetings with political parties requires a single party or a joint delegation of parties seeking an appointment to approach the Commission through a duly authorised representative.
A mutually convenient date and time is then fixed for the meeting. The Commission said political parties had been informed about the procedure and routinely followed it when seeking meetings with the poll body.
The EC said any political party could seek a meeting at any time through this established mechanism and that appointments were scheduled depending on availability and mutual convenience.
Its explanation came after Rahul repeatedly questioned during the protest why the Election Commissioners were unwilling to meet elected representatives who had marched from Parliament.
240 MPs, different venue
The size and proposed location of the meeting emerged as the central points of disagreement.
According to the EC, the request communicated by Delhi Police was not for a conventional delegation to visit Nirvachan Sadan. Instead, the Commission was asked to meet a group of 240 parliamentarians at Parliament House Annexe.
The poll panel said meetings of this nature were held at its own premises and it could not depart from that protocol for Tuesday’s delegation. It therefore declined the proposal to hold the meeting at the Annexe.
The EC’s account differs from the political framing of the episode by Opposition leaders, who said hundreds of elected MPs were seeking answers from the constitutional body and should have been allowed to meet the Commissioners.
Officer offered to take memorandum
The Election Commission said it nevertheless offered an alternative after being informed that the MPs wanted to submit a memorandum.
It proposed sending its senior-most serving officer to the venue to receive the document from the Opposition delegation. The Commission described even such a step as unprecedented, but said the MPs declined the offer.
The memorandum was linked to the Opposition’s campaign against Kumar and the SIR exercise. Opposition parties have raised allegations over electoral roll revisions and demanded greater transparency over additions and deletions, while the Commission has disputed several of their claims.
Rahul questions refusal
Speaking from inside the Akashvani Bhawan premises during the protest, Rahul said around 300 Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs had joined the march and questioned why the Election Commission would not meet them.
Rahul and Priyanka, along with other Congress leaders, entered Akashvani Bhawan after the march was stopped and staged a sit-in that continued for more than eight hours. Police later detained them and took them to Kingsway Camp police lines. The Congress said they were released shortly after 10 pm.
Rahul also levelled allegations of electoral manipulation against Kumar and the ruling establishment. The Election Commission and BJP have rejected such charges, and Rahul’s allegations are not findings by a court or other competent authority.
March ends in detentions
Tuesday’s protest began with Opposition MPs marching from the Parliament complex towards the Election Commission headquarters. Police stopped them on Parliament Street near the NITI Aayog office, after which several leaders staged a sit-in.
Rahul climbed atop police barricades and waved the Tricolour as protesters continued raising slogans. Akhilesh Yadav, Abhishek Banerjee, Derek O’Brien and several other Opposition leaders were among those detained during the confrontation.
The EC maintained that the dispute over Tuesday’s meeting did not amount to a refusal to engage with political parties. Its position was that the Opposition had not followed the established appointment procedure and that the later proposal conveyed through police sought both an unusually large delegation and a meeting outside the Commission’s premises.
The Opposition, however, continued to question why the Commission could not accommodate MPs who were already in central Delhi seeking to submit their concerns. The disagreement over the meeting consequently became another point of contention in the wider political battle over the SIR and the functioning of the Election Commission.