‘Perfect elections’: Pranab Mukherjee hails Election Commission amid Opposition criticism

Former President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday hailed the Election Commission for “perfectly” conducting the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and said democracy succeed in India due to perfect conduct of polls by various Election Commissioners.

“If democracy has succeeded, it is largely due to perfect conduct of elections by Election Commissioners starting from Sukumar Sen to the present Election Commissioners,” he said at a book launch here.

His remarks came at a time when role of the commission is being heavily criticised by the opposition parties. On occasions, the BJP also slammed it for its role in West Bengal during the Lok Sabha polls where violence took place during every phase.

Mukherjee said all the three Commissioners are appointed by the executive and they are doing their job well.

“You cannot criticise them, it was a perfect conduct of elections,” he said.

The Commission faced a lot of criticism during the polls this year for its “little action” on most of the complaints filed with it regarding the violation of the Model Code of Conduct.

Some of the opposition parties even accused the Election Commission of “favouritism” towards the BJP.