Not one or two but five… How the Election Commission was surrounded by controversies all the time

Controversy No. 1: Election Commissioner Goyal suddenly resigned just before the announcement of general elections
The first controversy started on 9 March before the announcement of the Lok Sabha elections. When Arun Goyal, one of the two Election Commissioners of the Commission, suddenly resigned. Questions began to arise as to what happened in the Commission that Election Commissioner Goyal had to suddenly resign from his post in such a confidential manner before retiring. This issue remained in the headlines continuously. Everyone wanted to know the reason for this. Then on 16 March, when this question was raised in the press conference organized by the Election Commission of India for the Lok Sabha elections, the then Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that the reason for his resignation was his personal decision. Before him, on 14 February, the second Election Commissioner of the Commission, Anup Chandra Pandey, had retired. Then in this way, Goyal, the only one left out of the two Election Commissioners after Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, resigned and created a new controversy.

Dispute No. 2: Regarding the appointment of the two Election Commissioners
The second major reason for the Commission getting into controversies was regarding the appointment of both the Election Commissioners. Because the absence of both the Election Commissioners raised the question that in such a situation, can Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar conduct the Lok Sabha elections alone? Meanwhile, on March 14, suddenly the high-level selection committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi filled the vacant seats of both the Election Commissioners in the Commission with retired IAS Gyanesh Kumar and Sukhbir Singh Sandhu. There was a big uproar over this. Adhir Ranjan Chaudhary, who was the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha, strongly disagreed with this. It was said that in the three-member selection committee headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, apart from the Prime Minister, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was at number two and he himself was at number three. Chaudhary had said that the Chief Justice of India should also have been included in the selection committee of Election Commissioners. Only then there would have been complete transparency in it.

Controversy No. 3: Voting percentage was given for 11 days, that too increased by 6%
Voting for the first phase was held on 19 April. But the commission released its final figures 11 days later on 30 April. That too with an increase of more than 6 percent. The opposition made it a big issue. This raised questions on the credibility and reputation of the commission. Because, on the day of voting for the first phase on 19 April at 7 pm, 60.03 percent voting was reported. Which was reported to be 66.14 percent with an increase of 6.11 percent in the voting percentage released by the commission 11 days later. Similarly, for the second phase of voting, the figure of 60.96 percent voting at 7 pm on 26 April was reported to be 66.71 with an increase of 6.19 percent on 30 April. Voting was also reported to have increased in other phases. So far, the final figures of voting for all seven phases have not been released by the commission.

Controversy No. 4: No action taken against PM Modi
Congress, CPI and Communist Party of India had complained to the Commission on April 21, saying that the comments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his election speech in Banswara, Rajasthan were a violation of the Model Code of Conduct. In the case, the Commission was accused of not taking timely action on their complaint. Even if action was taken, it was not by issuing a notice against Prime Minister Modi but by issuing a notice to BJP National President JP Nadda. In this too, a notice was also issued to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on the complaint received against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. In which Prime Minister Modi was not personally asked to respond to the violation of MCC, but along with advising the party presidents, he was also asked to respond.

Controversy No. 5: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of threatening collectors
After the last phase of polling was over, on June 1, before the counting of votes on June 4, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh posted on his social media handle X and accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of allegedly threatening 150 DMs and collectors over the phone. Many sharp attacks were made on the Commission regarding this. In which allegations like influencing the counting of votes were made. Regarding this issue, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar himself had also said in strong words without naming Jairam Ramesh that it is not right to make allegations without proof. The Commission had also sought a reply from him regarding this post. Then the Commission also remained in controversy for not giving extra time to the Congress leader. Along with this, the Commission also remained in controversy regarding EVM and VVPAT. During the voting, many videos went viral on social media. Questions kept arising about the credibility of EVM and VVPAT. However, the Commission said every time on such questions that there can be no setting in EVM under any circumstances.