Quraishi defends EC advisory to BJP not to field Varun

New Delhi, May 19 (PTI) India's Election Commission
Tuesday gave itself nine out of 10 for the manner in which it
conducted the parliamentary polls and defended the
controversial advisory to BJP to reconsider the candidature of
Varun Gandhi after his "hate" speech.

Expressing satisfaction over the conduct of the Lok
Sabha polls in five phases and spread over a month, Election
Commissioner S Y Quraishi said "I would give nine out of 10...
the one I am deducting is because some voters did not turn
up".

Defending the EC advisory to BJP to reconsider its
decision to field Varun as its candidate from Pilibhit, he
told Karan Thapar's 'India Tonight' programme on private
television channel CNBC that the electoral body could have
even have given a direction to the party on the issue.

"We could have given a direction. We sent another
advisory to all political parties to read the model code. Of
course the code was prepared by them. We advise them to follow
it in letter and spirit," he said.

The EC's advisory had been sent after it took
cognizance of the alleged "hate" speeches made by Varun in
Pilibhit in March. He was booked under NSA and the order was
withdrawn by the Mayawati government earlier this month
following a direction from the Supreme Court.

Coming out strongly against exit and opinion polls, he
said there are "manipulated" and should not be permitted.

"We believe that exit polls and opinion polls are
manipulated. They do influence free and fair polls and every
political party opposed it," Quraishi said.

Rejecting charges that clubbing all the 17 naxal-hit
states for polling led to several killings, the Election
Commissioner said it was a "master stroke" to conduct the
election together in those areas.

"Bunching the elections together in naxal-affected
areas was no mistake. That scheduling was a master stroke,"
Quraishi said, adding the Commission decided on this approach
after consultations with the Home Ministry and others.

He said the Commission could adopt the "same
scheduling" in holding elections in those areas in future as
well.

About the opinion and exit polls, the Election
Commissioner said these are "manipulated" and should not be
permitted.

"We believe that exit polls and opinion polls are
manipulated. They do influence free and fair polls and every
political party opposed it," he said adding the issue was
before the Supreme Court. PTI