Once the president notifies that Parliament is dissolved, the CEC and the ECI come into the picture. It is the job of the CEC to notify the dates of a national election, keeping in view the question of law and order, deployment of adequate forces in sensitive and trouble-prone areas, the weather, harvesting seasons and religious festivals. So, there are three touchstones on which the decision is taken: the facts on the ground, the views of all concerned, and the responsibility to conduct free and fair polls. Having considered all these issues, the commission has to decide the dates. It is like feeding a lot of information—solid chunks as well as bits and pieces—into a large computer and waiting for it to respond.
The tragedy of Rajiv’s death was a personal loss. On the professional side, we were right in the middle of an election for the conduct of which I was chiefly responsible. In 30-odd hours from then, the next round of polling was to commence. A decision regarding the conduct of the poll had to be taken quickly, so that the entire state machinery involved in the election could be spared wasteful effort. However, there was more to it than just making needless efforts. The aftermath of the 1984 assassination of Indira Gandhi was still fresh in everyone’s mind. It is prudent at such times to not leave anything as ambiguous, so that the people in an organization clearly know what is to be done.
While I made my way to the President’s house that night, much had already happened at Delhi. According to press reports, that I read only later, at around 11.20 p.m., the President was informed of the assassination. At that time, PM Chandra Shekhar was campaigning at Bhubaneshwar. On being informed, he left for Delhi immediately. He was to arrive at Delhi only after 2.30 in the morning. Some of his cabinet colleagues were also informed and called to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Meanwhile, the President tried to go to 10 Janpath to personally convey his condolences to the Gandhi family. But his car was mobbed by mourners who forced him to return without meeting the bereaved family. Clearly fearful of a repeat of the events of November 1984, the President summoned the three service chiefs and the cabinet secretary and directed them to take immediate steps to prevent any outbreak of violence. Flag marches were planned and the paramilitary forces were asked to be on full alert.
With the arrival of the PM in Delhi, a meeting was held to consider the law and order situation, the security arrangements and the future course of the Lok Sabha elections. Law minister Swamy and cabinet secretary Naresh Chandra were present at the meeting.
Rajiv had been the leader of the leading national party. With the environment being charged up with the murder of a person of the stature of Rajiv Gandhi, I considered that it would not be appropriate to rush things. On 6 and 8 June, Assam was originally scheduled to go to polls. And on 22 June, it was to be Punjab’s turn. These dates were best left unchanged. Monsoon loomed on the horizon, and elections could not be delayed for long. Therefore, we arrived at two possible slots for the elections: one in the beginning of June and the other in mid-June. Given the fluidity of the situation, the mourning period and the required preparation time, I felt that the first two to three days of June would be too close and preferred the second option.
The cabinet secretary and senior bureaucrats related to law and order felt that the government would be able to bring the situation under control in about three days and therefore polling could be put off by about a week. They said that they were better placed to judge the law and order situation than me and suggested 31 May and 2 June as the revised dates. As the CEC, I was of the view that the situation was not conducive for holding free and fair elections.
The President and the political leadership seemed to be more inclined to the latter set of dates. The PM thought that since I now had everyone’s point of view, the decision should be left to me. More or less, agreeing to mid-June, he suggested that it would be good if I asked the opinion of other political parties before announcing the decision.
I made phone calls between 3.00 a.m. and 5.00 a.m. to the leaders of important parties and could get only Pranab Mukherjee on the line. When I suggested that elections should be held in mid-June, he was non-committal. Looking at the situation, I thought that it would be futile to waste any more time. Moreover, based on how the situation evolved in the following two or three days, there would be an opportunity to review the decision and advance the date if necessary. Even the parties could be consulted on this. So, early in the morning of 22 May, I announced over the television that the second and third segments of the general election would be postponed to 12 and 15 June, respectively.
Reactions came in thick and fast. Sunderlal Patwa, the CM of Madhya Pradesh, and Biju Patnaik of Orissa reportedly told the press that keeping in view the duration of national mourning, there was no need to postpone elections for such a long time. On the other hand, Chimanbhai Patel, Sharad Pawar and P. Chidambaram either wrote to me, called me on the phone or met me personally to communicate that they would like the dates to be advanced.
The PM was sure that the dates should not be advanced. Advani spoke to me over the telephone and opposed against advancing the poll dates. On the other hand, the general secretary of the Congress (I), Ghulam Nabi Azad, pleaded for the advancement of the polls, pointing out that the situation in the country after the assassination of Rajiv was under control and that the candidates were anxious for the election process to be completed at the earliest. Taking everything into consideration, I finally decided that the poll dates were not to be advanced.
At the end of May, I received memoranda from the CMs of Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra, as also from several leaders from Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura, urging the commission to advance the poll dates in their respective states to the first week of June in view of the difficulty that the monsoon would create if the polls were to be held in mid-June. But I declined their request.
This excerpt from TN Seshan’s ‘Through the Broken Glass’ has been published with permission from Rupa Publications.