THE Election Commission (EC) had considered deferring a few phases of the recently held Assembly polls given the rising number of Covid cases but decided against it since the imposition of President’s Rule could have proven to be “damaging” for the poll body. The dissenting election commissioner, Rajiv Kumar, is said to have written this in his affidavit that was rejected by the Commission, and not filed with the Madras High Court. The Indian Express had first reported on Friday that one of the two election commissioners had offerred to resign as “punishment” if the Madras High Court (HC) so desired in a separate affidavit. Kumar’s affidavit lists out over 30 points of action taken by the EC to argue that the Commission was ahead of the COVID curve. He also added that the EC was never warned of a COVID19 “tsunami” which had “overwhelmed all organs of polity and society”.

Source: Indian Express May 07, 2021 22:27 UTC