Varun Gandhi takes on Election Commission, calls it 'toothless tiger'

Hyderabad: Coming down heavily on the Election Commission (EC), Bharatiya Janata Party MP Varun Gandhi on Friday tagged EC as a toothless tiger, saying, it has never taken any action on any political party for not submitting poll expenditure details with a certain time period.

“One of the biggest problems is the problem of the Election Commission which is really a toothless tiger. Article 324 of the Constitution says it (EC) controls and supervises elections. But does it really do that?

“It does not have the power to file cases once elections are over. It has to go to the Supreme Court to do so,” Varun Gandhi said while delivering a lecture on “Political Reforms in India” at the NALSAR University of Law here.

He said parties have made a habit of spending a lot on poll campaign.

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Varun, who represents Sultanpur seat in Uttar Pradesh, said that excluding one political party belonging to the late PA Sangma (NPP), no other party was derecognised for not submitting details to EC.

Varun said that political parties have denied any space for poor and middle-classs people to contest elections to Parliament and state assemblies.