‘ECI is made scapegoat’: What outgoing CEC Rajiv Kumar said on poll losers in farewell remarks

Rajiv Kumar, the outgoing chief election commissioner, gave his farewell address on Monday.

Outgoing chief election commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar, in his farewell address on Monday, said the Election Commission (ECI) is made a ‘scapegoat’ by those ‘unwilling to accept electoral outcomes.’

Outgoing chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar during a press conference on October 15, 2024. (PTI)

“The Commission, as an institution, often finds itself unfairly blamed by those unwilling to accept electoral outcomes. A pressing concern is the growing tendency to target election officials in the aftermath of electoral contests. It is perceived as a convenient scapegoat,” Rajiv Kumar said .

He further noted that as candidates and their parties are involved in every stage of the election process with ‘full transparency,’ then, without raising objections or filing appeals during the process, their attempts to create ‘doubts’ later are 'undesirable.'

Rajiv Kumar also called for the practice of the ECI being blamed after a poll defeat, to be stopped.

“Dialogue should always be the preferred approach and while the Commission reacts with sagacity, stoicism and restraint, this is a disturbing trend and should be abandoned soon,” he stated.

The outgoing CEC's remarks came amid allegations by the opposition that the ECI ‘favours’ the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a charge that the poll panel has repeatedly, and firmly, rejected.

For instance, on February 7, Congress MP and Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, claimed that the number of eligible voters in Maharashtra, between the Lok Sabha elections in April-June 2024, and the state assembly election in November, ‘increased’ by 39 lakh.

In the Lok Sabha polls, the Maha Vikas Aghadi, of which Congress is a member, won 30 of Maharashtra's 48 Lok Sabha seats. However, the BJP-led ruling Mahayuti swept the state in the assembly poll, winning 230 of the total 288 assembly constituencies.

Similarly, the opposition has been objecting to the use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) for casting of votes, and demanded a return to the ballot paper system.

In October 2024, after losing the Haryana assembly election despite a 10-year anti-incumbency against the BJP, the Congress, in an unprecedented move by a political party, ‘refused’ to accept the result.

The grand old party alleged there was a ‘gross mismatch’ between votes polled and counted.