'Prime Minister directly appointed me, without seeking the Leader of the Opposition's input,' stated SY Qureshi

SY Qureshi, a former chief electoral commissioner, expressed remorse on Thursday about his appointment in 2010 and the fact that the Leader of the Opposition was not consulted. 

He said that the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had appointed me as the Chief Election Commissioner without consulting Leader of the Opposition (LOP) Sushma Swaraj because there was no such provision in the Constitution then.

Speaking on the opening day of the seventh Kerala Literature Festival (KLF), Qureshi stated that I would have felt more empowered if my appointment as CEC had been decided upon following a discussion with the then-LoP. since this would serve as evidence of the other party's acceptance of them.

He claimed that because there is no clause in the Constitution or other legal document specifying who would be chosen and what qualifications are required, I was appointed under the system that allowed the government of the day to nominate anybody. Qureshi remarked, "Even as a CEC, I used to regret that I was appointed directly by the PM without consulting the leader of the opposition," during a discussion of his book India's Experiment with Democracy.

Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar tasked Principal Electoral Officer The state's Chief Electoral Officers (CEOs) on Thursday to ensure that the next Lok Sabha elections are conducted perfectly. Before the Lok Sabha elections, Rajiv Kumar spoke at a meeting of Chief Electoral Officers in New Delhi and stressed that winning an election requires duty and tenacity. He conveyed confidence in the arrangements put in place to deliver the greatest voting experience possible in the biggest democracy in the world.

The two-day conference is being organized to discuss election planning, expenditure monitoring, voter rolls, use of IT, data management and EVMs, and share experiences and learnings from the recently concluded assembly elections.