New Delhi: Chief Election Commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, on Saturday said that the Election Commission of India gives ‘Agnipariksha’ every election despite having conducted 400 assembly polls, 17 general elections and 16 Presidential and Vice Presidential polls. He made the statement while responding to a question about free and fair elections in Bengaluru.
The ECI completed a major milestone by having conducted 400 assembly polls in just-concluded polls in three northeastern states — Tripura, Meghalaya, and Nagaland, he added, as per ANI.
While responding to a question of whether the people of Karnataka can trust the ECI for a free and fair election, CEC Kumar said, "The Election Commission of India recently completed 400th State Assembly election in Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland, 17 times election to the parliament and 16 times Presidential and Vice Presidential Elections. Results are accepted election after election and the transition of power each time has been smoothly done by ballot”, reported ANI.
He said that in the last 70 years, India has stabilised its social, cultural, political, geographical, economic, and linguistic issues peacefully and through dialogue mainly because of established democracy which is possible only because people trust election results.
"Still ECI gives 'Agnipariskha' every time after each election," he said, as per ANI.
Rajiv Kumar is on a three-day visit to Karnataka to check the preparedness for the upcoming assembly election.
Kumar informed that all senior citizens above 80 year of age and people with disability will get a vote-from-home option in the Karnataka Assembly elections.
On Friday, he expressed concern over the apathy among young and urban voters during elections and called it a major challenge. He wondered why polling day is not celebrated like a festival of democracy and rather taken as a holiday.
"One major challenge before the Commission is the general apathy, mainly young and urban apathy amongst our voters," Kumar said according to PTI, during 'Vote Fest-2023' organised by the Chief Electoral Officer of Karnataka and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
The term of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly is till May 24, 2023. So, the new Assembly has to be in place, and elections have to be completed before that.
In 2018, BJP won 104 seats and emerged as the single largest party, while the Congress and JD(S) bagged 78 and 37 seats, respectively.