Congress says EC turned into puppet of govt, BJP accuses it of 'creating a smokescreen'

New Delhi: Congress and BJP locked horns in Rajya Sabha on electoral reforms with the main Opposition party saying the Election Commission will have to establish its credibility at a time it has "become a puppet of the government" and questioned how democracy can survive in the absence of a level playing field, transparency and credibility of the electoral process.

Initiating the 'Discussion on Election Reforms', senior Congress MP Ajay Maken said it is the job of the EC to stop 'vote chori' and asked how democracy can survive when there is no level playing field, transparency and credibility of the electoral process, which are the three basic conditions for any vibrant democracy.

"The Election Commission will have to establish its credibility because if the umpire himself wears one team's jersey, what will the other team do? If the umpire himself fixes the match, what will the players do?" Maken said.

Accusing the EC of refusing to provide machine-readable electoral rolls, hiding IP addresses and destroying CCTV footage after 45 days, Maken alleged that the poll body has become a "puppet of the government".

"If the umpire wears the jersey of a team, what will the other team do? If the umpire itself fixes the match, what will the players do?...If there is no wrongdoing, why are you hiding, why are you giving immunity (to Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners)," he asked.

Referring to the absence of a level-playing field in the electoral process, he accused the government of adopting various methods to deprive the opposition parties of funds. He said BJP's bank balance has increased from Rs 87.96 crore in 2004 to Rs 10,107.2 crore in 2024 while that of Congress increased from Rs 38.48 crore to Rs 133.97 crore only.

"I have spoken to businessmen, big industrialists. They said that during the time of the Congress government, they used to contribute (to political parties) in a 60:40 ratio. At present, let alone 90:10, even at a 95:5 ratio, we (businesses) can't give it to you because the moment we do it, ED and IT will come after us, and we are not allowed to do anything," he said.

He also mentioned the freezing of Congress just before Lok Sabha polls as well as EC not providing information to investigators regarding fake applications for voter deletion in Karnataka's Aland.

Senior BJP MP Sudhanshu Trivedi (BJP) hit back at the Congress accusing it of creating a smokescreen instead of availing the avenues available to them to seek redressal of their grievances.

He said when a team can seek a review if the umpire has not declared a batsman out but instead of going for a review, Congress has been holding press conferences hoping that the third umpire would give the decision on his own.

Quoting media reports, he alleged that in the election for Congress president in which Mallikarjun Kharge won, 22 Congress leaders sought voter lists but they were not provided voter lists.