M A I N   N E W S

Navin Chawla appointed Election Commissioner
T R Ramachandran
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 14
Information and Broadcasting Secretary Navin Chawla had been appointed an Election Commissioner with Chief Election Commissioner T. S. Krishna Murthy completing his term in Nirvachan Sadan here tomorrow, Union Law Minister H. R. Bhardwaj’s office said here this evening.

With the autonomous Election Commission, a creation of the Constitution, in the eye of a storm and Union Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav demanding the resignation of two Election Commissioners — Chief Election Commissioner designate B. B. Tandon and Election Commissioner N. Gopalaswamy — the Manmohan Singh government zeroed in on Mr Chawla, also a seasoned bureaucrat.

The search for filling the slot in the three-member Election Commission arose as former Punjab DGP A. A. Siddiqui, who had been sounded out, was believed to have politely declined the offer. Observers here believe that as a member of the minority community, Dr Siddiqui’s appointment as Election Commissioner may have laid him bare for adverse comments as his son is married to the daughter of Ahmad Patel, who is political secretary to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Mr Chawla, who has written two biographies of Mother Teresa, is close to the Gandhi family. He is a 1969 batch IAS officer belonging to the Union Territory cadre. He was a close friend of the late Sanjay Gandhi during the dark days of the Emergency and his wife, an art collector, is well-known to Mrs Sonia Gandhi. When he first met Mother Teresa in 1975, Mr Chawla was secretary to the Lt Governor of Delhi.

Mr Chawla has also served as Chairman of the Delhi Vidyut Board, Special Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Forests as well as Secretary, Union Public Services Commission (UPSC). He would have retired soon on attaining the age of superannuation.

Recognition of parties made easy
R. Suryamurthy
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 14
The Election Commission today further relaxed the rules for granting recognition to national and state parties and accordingly amended the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968.

In a release, the commission said in the case of state party recognition, in addition to the existing conditions, the following two alternative conditions had also been provided:

i) At a general election to the Lok Sabha, a party should win at least one seat for every 25 Lok Sabha seats, or any fraction thereof, allotted to that state;

ii) At a general election to the Lok Sabha from the state concerned, the candidates put up by the party in that State should poll at least six per cent of the total valid votes polled in all the parliamentary constituencies in the state, and in addition, the party should win at least one seat in the Lok Sabha from that state at the said general election.

For recognition as a national party, in addition to the existing two conditions, a third alternative condition has been added to the effect that a party recognised as a state party in a minimum of four states would be eligible for recognition as national party.

For recognition as national or state party, fulfilling any one of the different conditions would be sufficient, a release of the Election Commission said.

The recognition of political parties is governed by the provisions of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 and these conditions were last amended in December 2000.

When the poll performance of the political parties at the last Lok Sabha election was reviewed with reference to the existing conditions certain anomalies came to notice. The present conditions do not take into account the performance of the parties at the Lok Sabha election for the purpose of state party recognition. There have been situations where a party, even after winning a considerable number of Lok Sabha seats in a state, was seen to be ineligible for recognition as a state party.

In the conditions for recognition of national party status also there are some anomalies in that a party may obtain recognition as a state party in any number of states, and yet, may not be eligible for national status. In order to remove these anomalies, the Election Commission decided to make some modifications in the recognition conditions.