Election Commissioners Navin Chawla and Qureshi have threatened to postpone the Gujarat election process and bring President's Rule in the state if the Bharatiya Janata Party fans communal violence in Gujarat through its new CD, which is to be released in the birth place of Sardar Patel.
Navin Chawla is the other Election Commissioner.
CEC gives views on Chawla debacle
Constitutional experts on Saturday attacked Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami's decision to suo motu recommend removal of Navin Chawla as Election Commissioner, saying the move has created a 'crisis' and its timing just ahead of the elections could make people believe there is 'some motivation'.
The Election Commission made it clear that it's impossible to have compulsory voting in the country, given the large scale workforce in the unorganised sector. "At a scale like in general elections, it's just not possible for us to implement that," Chief Election Commissioner Navin B Chawla told a news conference in Bengaluru. "It's very difficult. Completely impossible".
Chief Election Commissioner Navin B Chawla on Monday said making voting compulsory was not 'practical' and maintained that the legislatures will have to take a call on the issue.
For successive governments the Election Commission remains a 'holy cow', where unhealthy precedents are allowed to be nurtured since Independence, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Besides the various political parties, the election commission is also getting into poll mode.
'Although the Election Commission remains convinced about the EVM's integrity, as a fair umpire of the game it was necessary to travel the last mile to convince political players that the entire process was not only fair but transparently so.' A fascinating excerpt from former Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla's new book, Excerpted from Every Vote Counts: The Story Of India's Elections.
