<p>Bengaluru: Senior Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan on Sunday alleged that the Election Commission of India (ECI) was increasingly functioning in a partisan manner and accused its observers of "actively campaigning" for the BJP in some states. </p><p>He was speaking at a seminar on delimitation, the Women’s Reservation Bill and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, organised by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights–Karnataka in Bengaluru. He suggested that the SIR was being used to selectively exclude voters, particularly from the Muslim community, from electoral rolls. </p><p>The senior advocate also raised concerns over the transparency of the electoral process. He said the ECI does not upload Forms 17C and 20 data online, which contain polling booth-wise voter turnout and vote count details, despite several requests. He also argued that counting all VVPAT slips would take only a few hours but it is not done. “How do we know EVMs are not manipulated unless VVPAT slips are counted?” he said. </p>.Bag with gelatin sticks found on PM Modi's convoy route in Bengaluru.<p>Targeting the appointment process of election commissioners, Bhushan criticised the Centre for amending the law to exclude the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee. He said the appointment mechanism had reduced the process to a “farce”. The ECI, he said, has gradually become more partisan and less fair. </p><p>On the issue of delimitation and the Women’s Reservation Bill, Bhushan warned that southern states such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh could lose parliamentary representation after the delimitation exercise due to their success in population control. He argued that the balance of power in Parliament could shift towards northern states. </p><p>Bhushan further alleged that delimitation could be used for political "gerrymandering" by redrawing constituency boundaries in a manner favourable to the ruling party. Calling the developments an “all-round onslaught on electoral democracy”, he urged citizens to organise peaceful protests to defend democratic institutions and voting rights.</p>
<p>Bengaluru: Senior Supreme Court advocate Prashant Bhushan on Sunday alleged that the Election Commission of India (ECI) was increasingly functioning in a partisan manner and accused its observers of "actively campaigning" for the BJP in some states. </p><p>He was speaking at a seminar on delimitation, the Women’s Reservation Bill and the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, organised by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights–Karnataka in Bengaluru. He suggested that the SIR was being used to selectively exclude voters, particularly from the Muslim community, from electoral rolls. </p><p>The senior advocate also raised concerns over the transparency of the electoral process. He said the ECI does not upload Forms 17C and 20 data online, which contain polling booth-wise voter turnout and vote count details, despite several requests. He also argued that counting all VVPAT slips would take only a few hours but it is not done. “How do we know EVMs are not manipulated unless VVPAT slips are counted?” he said. </p>.Bag with gelatin sticks found on PM Modi's convoy route in Bengaluru.<p>Targeting the appointment process of election commissioners, Bhushan criticised the Centre for amending the law to exclude the Chief Justice of India from the selection committee. He said the appointment mechanism had reduced the process to a “farce”. The ECI, he said, has gradually become more partisan and less fair. </p><p>On the issue of delimitation and the Women’s Reservation Bill, Bhushan warned that southern states such as Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh could lose parliamentary representation after the delimitation exercise due to their success in population control. He argued that the balance of power in Parliament could shift towards northern states. </p><p>Bhushan further alleged that delimitation could be used for political "gerrymandering" by redrawing constituency boundaries in a manner favourable to the ruling party. Calling the developments an “all-round onslaught on electoral democracy”, he urged citizens to organise peaceful protests to defend democratic institutions and voting rights.</p>
