Former Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, perhaps for the first time, admitted that countermanding 2012 Rajya Sabha Elections in Jharkhand was a “bold but risky” decision. The RS poll was countermanded by the Election Commission following seizure of over Rs 2 crore from a speeding car of a candidate’s relative.
“Countermanding of Rajya Sabha polls was a tough decision taken by us as it would have attracted all round criticism, had the money seized was proved genuine by the person from whom it was seized,” said Quraishi while speaking during a programme organized by a media house in Ranchi. Even though, the decision was taken after taking all risk factors into consideration, added Quraishi.
Quraishi also highlighted some of the unique features of Indian Electoral process and called it the biggest event management programme in the world. “A bank robbery could be compensated but election must be conducted in a free and fair manner,” Quraishi said. The election process has never failed in the Country as no one has ever raised fingers on the process adopted by the Election Commission, he added.
Referring to the Supreme Court judgment of April 2013 which had rejected union minister CP Joshi’s petition seeking cancellation of election on Nathwara Assembly constituency, Quraishi said that they learnt three things from the episode. “First, every vote counts second, family members cannot be taken for granted and thirdly, most important temple on polling day is polling booth,” said Quraishi.
The Supreme Court judgment came after Joshi and Chouhan reached a tie with same number of votes following its order for counting of the tender votes. Earlier, Joshi had challenged Chouhan’s election in the high court after losing by one vote. He had alleged that Chouhan’s wife had cast two votes on booth no. 39 and 40. He had also demanded counting of tender votes.
Quraishi was the 17th Chief Elections Commissioner of India who also remained on the post of Election Commissioner for quite some time, authored the book ‘Undocumented Wonder - The Making of Great Indian Election.’ Quraishi, being a part of the three member Commission, controlled, directed and supervised the conduct of elections to the offices of President and Vice-President of India, General Elections to the lok Sabha – 2009 besides other elections in the Country.
Quraishi has brought special focus on people’s participation in the management of elections, voters’ education and youth involvement in the electoral process through scientific research and interventions. He has been an ardent proponent for lending strength to the grassroots level election functionaries.