Election Commissioner Quits Panel Probing AAP Cases After Kejriwal Questions His Political Alignment

Election Commissioner O P Rawat, who was part of the panel looking into Aam Aadmi Party-related cases pending before the Election Commission of India (ECI), removed himself from the team on Wednesday after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal accused him of being politically aligned with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In an interview, Kejriwal had alleged that Rawat was close to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. “There is a big question mark over EC. One of the election commissioners, A K Joti, was chief secretary of Gujarat under Modiji. The second election commissioner has come from Madhya Pradesh and has been very close to Shivraj Singh Chauhan. So, independence of both these election commissioners is under question,” Kejriwal had said.

The EC is currently looking into the office of profit case that may lead to disqualification of 21 lawmakers of the ruling AAP.

Rawat quit the panel looking into AAP-related cases, saying that this step was required to “uphold the public perception of impartiality and objectivity of the Election Commission of India”. Meanwhile, the EC is planning to respond to Kejriwal’s allegations, which, given his credibility, could be far from true.