In his farewell speech on Monday, Rajiv Kumar, the outgoing Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), said that the Election Commission of India (ECI) has often been unfairly blamed by people who do not want to accept the results of elections. He pointed out that blaming election officials after an election is becoming a common problem.
Rajiv Kumar emphasized that candidates and their parties are involved in every part of the election process and that they should voice any issues during the process, not after the results are announced. He called for an end to this blame game.
“Talking things out should always be the first choice. Even though the Commission stays calm and collected, it is upsetting to see this trend of blaming after losing,” he added.
His comments come as some opposition parties claim that the ECI favors the ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The ECI has firmly denied these claims.
For example, on February 7, Rahul Gandhi, a leader of the Congress party, stated that the number of voters in Maharashtra jumped by 39 lakh between Lok Sabha elections in April-June 2024 and the assembly elections in November. In the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress party won 30 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra. However, the BJP-led party won 230 out of the 288 assembly seats in the state.
The opposition has also raised concerns about using Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), asking to switch back to paper ballots. In October 2024, after losing to the BJP in Haryana despite the BJP’s ten-year rule, Congress shocked everyone by refusing to accept the election results, claiming that there was a big mismatch between votes counted and actual votes cast.
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