PUDUCHERRY: The Congress and CPM have sought immediate disqualification of the nine BJP candidates in the Puducherry Legislative Assembly elections for allegedly violating the Model Code of Conduct by accessing Aadhaar data of voters.
CPM State Secretary R Rajangam in a memorandum to the Chief Election Commissioner stated that the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) hasn’t taken any actions on the complaint by Democratic Youth Federation of India Puducherry District Committee (Dt. 05/03/2021) requesting investigation into BJP’s creation and use of booth level WhatsApp groups for Puducherry voters to engage in electoral campaigning.
Upon getting no resolution to the complaints, a writ petition was filed at the Madras High Court (W.P.No.7588 of 2021). During the hearing proceedings, the High Court bench raised the question of postponing the elections until preliminary investigations are conducted. If not postpone, why not disqualify the BJP candidates from contesting in this election, asked Rajangam.
Private and sensitive information of Puducherry voters, specifically mobile phone numbers linked to Aadhaar, has been illegally procured by the BJP to engage in electoral campaigns through creation of booth level WhatsApp groups, he alleged.
This is a clear violation of the fundamental Right to Privacy (Puttaswamy vs Union of India) and the Model Code of Conduct in effect since 26/02/2021, he said, adding it is also a serious criminal offence under Section 43 and 66. It also amounts to utilizing the loopholes in the UIDAI/Aadhar data leading to breeches in the security of the system, and leaves one to question the integrity of the Central UIDAI and whether there was any collusion between the agency and the BJP, said Rajangam.
With this grave situation of multiple flaws in the system where the State Election Office, the UIDAI and the BJP are involved, there is a need to seriously take into account the fairness of the whole election process in Puducherry, he said.
In order to ensure the conduct of free and fair elections, the CPM urged the Election Commission to disqualify the BJP candidates. Besides, the CEO posted at Puducherry should be immediately replaced due to gross incompetence and deliberate dereliction of duty in addressing this violation of the Model Code of Conduct, he said.
Making a similar plea, AICC secretary in charge of Puducherry Dinesh Gundu Rao said that instead of postponing the election, the Election Commission should disqualify the nine BJP candidates contesting the polls in Puducherry.
The ECI should also take serious notice and action against UIDAI over how the personal data of people has been compromised by the authority and probe how it was accessed by a political party.
He questioned why the elections should be postponed and candidates of other political parties and others suffer on account of the BJP. He said the party's candidates should be disqualified, adding that on behalf of the Congress, a memorandum would be submitted to the Chief Election Commissioner in this regard.