The Congress on Sunday set up an eight-member Empowered Action Group of Leaders and Experts, or EAGLE, to keep a “bird’s eye view” of elections in the country and “monitor the conduct of free and fair elections by the Election Commission of India”. Since the losses in last year’s Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections, the Congress has levelled allegations of electoral malpractices and manipulation.
The EAGLE committee will report to Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi. one of the poll body’s most vocal critics in the party, and will first look into the alleged increase of voters in Maharashtra and keep a watch on the February 5 Delhi Assembly elections. The panel includes Congress treasurer Ajay Maken and senior leaders Digvijaya Singh, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Praveen Chakravarty, Pawan Khera, Gurdeep Singh Sappal, Nitin Raut, and Challa Vamshi Chand Reddy.
Several committee members The Indian Express spoke to said its objective was to keep an eye on the Election Commission (EC). “Though it is the constitutional responsibility of the EC to conduct free and fair elections, it has not happened in the recent past. We have seen unfair elections in Haryana, Maharashtra, and other states. Hence, the party felt a need to have a committee that would focus on elections,” said a member.
Another member said, “We have named the committee EAGLE because that, in a way, describes what we will be doing. We will keep a close watch on everything related to elections from afar.” Congress insiders said Chakravarty, who heads the All India Professionals’ Congress and the party’s data analytics department, suggested the name EAGLE and the top leadership approved it.
Congress allegations and EC response
After the Haryana Assembly elections did not go its way, the Congress said it would not accept the verdict alleging a “conspiracy” hatched through “manipulation” of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). It was the first time a mainstream party had refused to accept a mandate alleging EVM manipulation. At the time, Congress communications chief Jairam Ramesh said, “It (the verdict) goes against ground reality. It goes against what people in Haryana had made up their mind for, which was for change and transformation. Under these circumstances, it is not possible for us to accept the results that have been announced today. Serious questions have been raised by our candidates… We will bring it to the notice of the EC.”
In Maharashtra, the Congress has raised questions about voter lists. On November 29, six days after the Assembly election results in the state were announced, the party wrote to the EC and a delegation met the Commission to raise what it called a “shocking” 13% increase in electors in the state since the Lok Sabha elections a few months earlier. The Congress representation to the EC sought “raw data” for the 39 lakh electors added to the rolls.
The EC wrote back on December 24 that there had been 48,81,620 additions and 8,00,391 deletions, leading to a net addition of 40,81,229 electors between the parliamentary and state elections in Maharashtra. The EC said that after the amendment to the Representation of the People Act, there were four qualifying dates for new electors who turn 18: January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1. The EC said the additions included 8,72,094 electors in the 18-19 age group and 17,74,514 electors in the 20-29 age group.
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However, the EC’s explanation has not satisfied the party. At the inauguration of the new Congress headquarters on January 15, Gandhi alleged there was “something wrong that has happened in the Maharashtra (Assembly) election”. He also alleged there was “a serious problem with our election system”, adding that the EC was not being “transparent” on what he claimed was an “increase” of one crore voters in Maharashtra between the two elections last year.
