Election commissioner Ashok Lavasa recuses himself from poll code meets

New Delhi: A day before the last phase of Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission found itself embroiled in a fresh controversy as election commissioner Ashok Lavasa refused to attend the panel’s meetings related to code violations till he is not allowed to record his dissent.

Taking to damage control, Chief Election Commission (CEC) Sunil Arora on Saturday described as “unsavoury” and “avoidable” reports on Mr Lavasa’s displeasure over giving back-to-back clean chits to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah for alleged violations of model code of conduct.
Mr Arora played down the “differences” within the three-member poll panel, saying election commissioners are not “expected to be clones of each other”.

“The three members of EC are not expected to be templates or clones of each other, there have been so many times in the past when there has been a vast
diversion of views as it can, and should be,” Mr Arora said in a statement on Mr Lavasa’s purported letter to him.

The CEC said a meeting has been called on Tuesday to discuss this and related matters.