No impropriety, held informal talks with PMO on poll reforms: EC sources

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, December 17

The Election Commission of India (ECI) held an “informal interaction” with the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to understand “key electoral reforms” with an aim to bridge gaps in understanding between the poll panel and the Ministry of Law and Justice, with sources insisting that no impropriety was involved in doing so.

EC subservient tool: Congress

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Cat is out of the bag! What was whispered till now is a fact. PMO summoning ECI was unheard of. Treating EC as a subservient tool is yet another low in govt’s record of destroying institutions. — Randeep Surjewala, Congress

The commission has long been sharing reform proposals by bringing in changes in the electoral laws and the virtual interaction in November between Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sushil Chandra, along with fellow commissioners Rajiv Kumar and Anoop Chandra Pandey, and PMO officials was held to “bridge the gaps in understanding the points of views of the Law Ministry and the ECI”, say the EC sources.

For the informal virtual interaction between the two sides, the PMO took the lead after studying a series of correspondence between the government and the poll panel on the electoral reforms, they said.

On the reported letter of the Ministry of Law and Justice in which it is said that the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister will chair a meeting on common electoral rolls and “expects the CEC” to be present, the EC sources say none of the commissioners attended that formal interaction. They went on to add that senior EC officials attended the formal meeting, besides officials from the Ministry of Law and Justice.

The Legislative Department of the ministry is the nodal agency for EC-related matters. The sources said the result of the informal interaction with the PMO resulted in the Union Cabinet on Wednesday clearing several electoral reforms.