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| Quraishi defends EC advisory to BJP not to field Varun |
| Press Trust of India / New Delhi May 19, 2009, 15:16 IST |
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The Election Commission today gave itself nine out of 10 for the manner in which it conducted the Lok Sabha polls and defended the controversial advisory to BJP to reconsider the candidature of Varun Gandhi after his "hate" speech.
Expressing satisfaction over the conduct of the Lok Sabha polls in five phases and spread over a month, Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi said "I would give nine out of 10... the one I am deducting is because some voters did not turn up".
Defending the EC advisory to BJP to reconsider its decision to field Varun as its candidate from Pilibhit, he told Karan Thapar's 'India Tonight' programme on CNBC that the electoral body could have even have given a direction to the party on the issue.
"We could have given a direction. We sent another advisory to all political parties to read the model code. Of course the code was prepared by them. We advise them to follow it in letter and spirit," he said.
The EC's advisory had been sent after it took cognizance of the alleged "hate" speeches made by Varun in Pilibhit in March. He was booked under NSA and the order was withdrawn by the Mayawati government earlier this month following a direction from the Supreme Court.
Coming out strongly against exit and opinion polls, he said there are "manipulated" and should not be permitted.
"We believe that exit polls and opinion polls are manipulated. They do influence free and fair polls and every political party opposed it," Quraishi said.
Rejecting charges that clubbing all the 17 naxal-hit states for polling led to several killings, the Election Commissioner said it was a "master stroke" to conduct the election together in those areas.
"Bunching the elections together in naxal-affected areas was no mistake. That scheduling was a master stroke," Quraishi said, adding the Commission decided on this approach after consultations with the Home Ministry and others.
He said the Commission could adopt the "same scheduling" in holding elections in those areas in future as well.
About the opinion and exit polls, the Election Commissioner said these are "manipulated" and should not be permitted.
"We believe that exit polls and opinion polls are manipulated. They do influence free and fair polls and every political party opposed it," he said adding the issue was before the Supreme Court.
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