Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Dec 22: The Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday hit out at the BJP government at the Centre for tweaking an election rule to prevent public inspection of certain electronic documents, while the defeated BJP candidate in Wayanad filed a petition in the Kerala High Court challenging the election of Mrs Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the Lok Sabha byelection last month.
The losing BJP candidate Navya Haridas in her petition has claimed that Mrs Gandhi Vadra did not correctly disclose her and her family’s assets in the nomination papers and provided “false information.” This was against the Model Code of Conduct and amounts to corrupt practices, she said.
“We filed an election petition yesterday in the High Court against Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. It clearly states that the nomination papers were misleading. Many important things were hidden from the nomination papers like the assets of Ms Gandhi Vadra and her family,” she said on Sunday. “Earlier we had given a complaint to the Election Commission regarding this issue but it was not taken up as how we expected it to be,” she said.
Advocate Hari Kumar G Nair, who filed the petition for Ms Haridas, said the petition sought setting aside of Ms Gandhi Vadra’s election for allegedly “suppressing vital information about the various assets owned by her and her family” and “misguiding, misinforming and keeping the voters in the dark with the intention of influencing their choice.”
Ms Gandhi Vadra made her successful maiden electoral debut from the Wayanad seat in Kerala after her brother and senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who had won the seat in the 2024 general elections in April, vacated it choosing to retain family bastion Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh. Ms Vadra defeated her nearest BJP rival by over five lakh votes in the November 13 bypoll.
The election petition against Ms Priyanka Vadra is likely to come up for a hearing in January next year as the high court will be on vacation from December 23 to January 5.
Mrs Vadra in her nomination papers, had declared assets worth over ₹ 12 crore. The 52-year-old Congress general secretary also declared a total income of over ₹ 46.39 lakh in the financial year 2023-2024, which included rental income and interest from banks and other investments.
Giving details of her assets and liabilities in the affidavit filed along with her nomination papers in October, she said she had movable assets of over ₹ 4.24 crore that include deposits of varying amounts in three bank accounts, investments in mutual funds, PPF, a Honda CRV car gifted by her husband, Robert Vadra, and over 4,400 grams (gross) of gold worth ₹ 1.15 crore.
Her immovable assets are worth over ₹ 7.74 crore, which included two inherited half shares of agricultural land in the Mehrauli area of Delhi and a half-share in a farmhouse building located therein, all of which together are now worth over ₹ 2.10 crore. Besides that, she has a self-acquired residential property in Shimla in Himachal Pradesh, which is presently worth over ₹ 5.63 crore.
Ms Gandhi Vadra, who has a Post Graduate Diploma in Buddhist Studies through distance learning from the University of Sunderland, UK and a BA Hons degree in Psychology from Delhi University, has liabilities of ₹ 15.75 lakh. In her affidavit, she also gave details of her husband’s movable and immovable assets. She said Mr Vadra had movable assets worth over ₹ 37.9 crore and immovable assets worth over ₹ 27.64 crore.
Congress’ Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari attacked the BJP calling the election petition against Ms Vadra “an act of cheap publicity.” He said he was confident that the petition would be rejected and a fine would be imposed on the petitioner Navya Haridas.
His party colleague Manickam Tagore said that even though BJP has the right to file a petition, he is confident that the truth was on the Congress side. “BJP people have the right to do all these things. They will complain against Rahul Gandhi in Delhi and against Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in Wayanad. We all know that the truth is on our side,” he said.
Hitting out at the BJP government at the Centre, Mr Kharge said tweaking the election rules to keep some of the election documents outside public viewing was part of the Modi government’s “systematic conspiracy to destroy the institutional integrity of the Election Commission.”
Mr Kharge also said the Modi government’s “calibrated erosion” of the ECI’s integrity was a frontal attack on the Constitution and democracy. The government has tweaked an election rule to prevent public inspection of certain electronic documents such as CCTV camera and webcasting footage as well as video recordings of candidates to prevent their possible misuse.
Based on the recommendation of the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Union law ministry on Friday amended Rule 93(2)(a) of the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961, to restrict the type of “papers” or documents open to public inspection.
Reacting to the development, Mr Kharge said, “Modi government’s audacious amendment in the Conduct of Election Rules is another assault in its systematic conspiracy to destroy the institutional integrity of the Election Commission of India.”
“Earlier, they had removed the Chief Justice of India from the Selection panel which appoints Election Commissioners, and now they have resorted to stonewall electoral information, even after a High Court order,” he said in a post on X.
Every time the Congress party wrote to the ECI, regarding specific poll irregularities such as voter deletions and lack of transparency in EVMs, the ECI has responded in a condescending tone and chosen not to even acknowledge certain serious complaints, Mr Kharge said. “This again proves that the ECI, even though it is a quasi-judicial body, is not behaving independently,” he said.
“The Modi government’s calibrated erosion of ECI’s integrity is a frontal attack on the Constitution and Democracy and we will take every step to safeguard them,” Mr Kharge said.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh had said the party would legally challenge the amendment. Lok Sabha MP and Congress general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said the poll panel had chosen opacity and a pro-government attitude in its dealings thus far.
According to Rule 93, all “papers” related to elections shall be open to public inspection. The amendment inserts “as specified in these rules” after “papers.”
Law Ministry and ECI officials separately explained that a court case was the “trigger” behind the amendment.
While documents such as nomination forms, appointment of election agents, results and election account statements are mentioned in the Conduct of Election Rules, electronic documents such as CCTV camera footage, webcasting footage and video recording of candidates during the Model Code of Conduct period are not covered.
“CCTV coverage, webcasting of polling stations are not carried out under Conduct of Election Rules but are the result of steps taken by the ECI to ensure a level playing field,” a former ECI official explained.