Kejriwal slams PM on bill on appointments of election commission officials

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a bill that seeks to regulate the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and election commissioners, claiming it will influence the fairness of elections.

Future chief election commissioners and election commissioners will be selected by a three-member panel headed by the prime minister and comprising the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha and a Cabinet minister, according to a bill listed for introduction in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

This is in contrast to a Supreme Court judgment of March which said the panel should comprise the prime minister, the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha and the Chief Justice of India.

In a couple of long posts on X, earlier known as Twitter, Kejriwal also accused Modi of not following the Supreme Court order and said this is a "very dangerous situation".

"I had already said that the prime minister does not obey the Supreme Court of the country. His message is clear - he will bring a law through the Parliament to overturn whichever Supreme Court order he does not like. It is a very dangerous situation if the prime minister does not follow the Supreme Court," Kejriwal said on X.

"The Supreme Court had formed an impartial committee which will select impartial election commissioners. The prime minister by overturning the Supreme Court has formed a committee that will be under his control and he could make a person of his liking election commissioner through it. It will influence impartiality of elections," he said and alleged that "the prime minister is weakening Indian democracy through decision after decision".

In another post, he wrote the committee proposed for selection of election commissioners will have "two BJP and one Congress members". "Obviously the selected election commissioner will be loyal to the BJP," AAP leader said.

The government has listed the bill for introduction to regulate the appointment, conditions of service and term of office of the Chief Election Commissioner and other Election Commissioners.