CEC Gyanesh Kumar should answer questions in minds of people, Oppn on open platform: Sena (UBT) MP

Mumbai, Nov 19 (PTI) Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Wednesday said Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar should answer questions present in the minds of people and Opposition parties on an open platform, and convince people that whatever the poll panel does is right.

She said this in response to a joint statement issued by a group of 272 eminent citizens, comprising former judges, retired bureaucrats and veteran armed forces officers, in which they lashed out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for unleashing what they claimed his "impotent rage born out of repeated electoral failure" to tarnish the dignity of the EC.

Talking to PTI Videos, Chaturvedi said the opposition is asking some questions, which are also in the minds of people of the country, be it related to the electronic voting machines (EVMs), voters' list or Special Intensive Revision (SIR).

"I am astonished that a letter has been written to the LoP (Gandhi). If the name of the EC is getting tarnished, then the poll body is taking the responsibility of it. If (Chief Election Commissioner) Gyanesh Kumar ji reads a script which comes from the BJP office, then EC's image is tarnished by whom?" Chaturvedi said.

In their statement, the eminent personalities said the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha has repeatedly attacked the EC over accusations of "vote theft" using "unbelievably uncouth rhetoric" and by claiming that he would "hound" officers when they superannuate from the poll authority.

Chaturvedi said, "If these people, instead of writing to LoP, write to Gyanesh Kumar...He is a senior executive of the Indian bureaucracy and if he does not take responsibility for it, then (EC's image) gets tarnished." The Rajya Sabha MP said Gyanesh Kumar should take questions which are in the minds of people and Opposition parties on an open platform and convince people that whatever the EC is doing is right.

"The EC should also say that when the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi decided to give money to women, it interfered to stop it. But when this was done in Bihar, the EC looked elsewhere," Chaturvedi said. PTI PR NP