Seeking to underline the powers vested in the Election Commission by the Constitution, BJP MP P P Chaudhary targeted Congress in Lok Sabha Tuesday for never having undertaken significant measures such as ‘One Nation One Election’, when it was in power.
Chaudhary, who chairs the Joint Committee of Parliament on One Nation One Election Bills, said, “The executive powers given to the Election Commission are immense. Before looking at the Representation of People Act, we should see powers under Article 324 that the EC has. These are being invoked for the SIR (of electoral rolls)… even Parliament cannot limit, lessen or weaken them.”
Accusing Congress of seeking to “give the people the wrong message”, Chaudhary took on LS LoP Rahul Gandhi for carrying around a copy of the Constitution “only to show off” while being unaware of “the scope and the spirit of Article 324.”
“Mistakes which have existed since your time, the condition in which you (Congress) left the voter list until 2014, an SIR is necessary to correct all that; it is in national and public interest… should voters who have died remain on the list?…” he said.
