Jagan regrets YSRCP backing for 2023 Election Commissioners law, seeks neutral panel

YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, who heads the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) and earlier served as Andhra Pradesh’s chief minister, has said his party erred in backing the 2023 central law that governs how the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners are chosen, and has called for a more neutral selection process.

Speaking to reporters in Tadepalli on Sunday, 18 October, Reddy said the government of the day should have no say in picking the officials who conduct elections, whether at the national or the state level. Recalling that his party had backed a system letting the ruling side nominate the poll watchdog’s members, he said that “today we are regretting the mistake”, according to IANS.

‘The student cannot pick the examiner’

Reddy likened the arrangement to letting a candidate choose the person who marks their answer sheet. However honest such an examiner may be, he argued, doubts will follow unless the choice is made by an impartial body. He wants the earlier model restored, in which a three-member panel of the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India and the Opposition leader picks the CEC, arguing that the Chief Justice’s presence would make the panel neutral.

Under the present set-up, he said, the Prime Minister and a Cabinet colleague of his choosing together hold two votes against the Leader of Opposition’s one, so the person chosen will effectively be the government’s nominee. “This is a flaw in the system,” he said, adding that the YSRCP had grasped this only later.

What the 2023 Act says

The 2023 law, formally titled the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act and covering their appointment, service conditions and tenure, cleared Parliament in December 2023. It provides that the President appoints the CEC and Election Commissioners on the advice of a selection committee chaired by the Prime Minister, with the Leader of Opposition and a Union Cabinet minister nominated by the Prime Minister as members. In March 2023, the Supreme Court had ordered that, until Parliament made a law, appointments be made on the advice of a committee comprising the CJI, the Prime Minister and the Leader of Opposition.

Allegations against the TDP

Reddy’s remarks came after he called on Anil Chandra Punetha, Andhra Pradesh’s State Election Commissioner, with a complaint that the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP)-led coalition was blocking his party’s nominees from submitting their papers for the coming local body elections. He alleged attacks, threats, snatching of nomination papers and misuse of police, citing places such as Kadapa, Punganur, Tirupati and Pulivendula. Oneindia noted that these claims could not be independently verified and that the TDP had not immediately responded.

He also said Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu should not be the one appointing the State Election Commissioner, and alleged that Punetha was acting on Naidu’s directions. Reddy sought central forces and CCTV coverage throughout the polling process, Zee News reported.

Under the schedule announced for the polls, 100 urban local bodies go to the vote on 28 October, with MPTC and ZPTC polls on 3 November and gram panchayat polls in three phases from 26 November.

Sources: Telangana Today (IANS), Zee News, Oneindia, Wikipedia