'Election Commission Gives Agnipariksha During Every Poll': CEC Rajiv Kumar

Bengaluru: Election Commission of India (ECI) gives `Agnipariskha` every election despite having conducted 400 Assembly elections, 17 general elections, and 16 Presidential and Vice Presidential polls, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar said. He was responding to a question on the free and fair elections here on Saturday. ECI completed the milestone of having conducted 400 assembly polls in just concluded polls in three northeastern states -- Tripura, Meghalaya, and Nagaland, he pointed out.

CEC Kumar while responding to a question on the issue of whether the people of Karnataka can trust it for a free and fair election, and 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."

CEC said that in the last 70 years India has stabilised its social, cultural, political, geographical, economic, 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.

The CEC was in Karnataka with his team on a three-day visit to check the preparedness of the ensuing Assembly polls. 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 prior to that. Kumar said that all senior citizens above 80 and people with disability will get a vote-from-home option in the Karnataka Assembly elections. For the record, in the 2018 Assembly elections, BJP won 104 seats and emerged as the single largest party, while the Congress and JD(S) bagged 78 and 37 seats, respectively.