Patole slams EC order to destroy poll footage after 45 days, alleges collusion with Centre-OxBig News Network

Congress leader Nana Patole on Friday criticised the Election Commission for its instruction to destroy CCTV, webcasting and video footage of any election process after 45 days, accusing it of “collusion” with the Union Government.

Fearing the use of its electronic data to create “malicious narratives”, the EC in a letter on May 30 instructed the state poll officers to destroy such footage after 45 days if the verdict is not challenged in courts before that.

Patole, a former Maharashtra Assembly Speaker, said at a press conference here that some people had approached the High Court of Punjab and Haryana after elections in Haryana, and the court directed the commission to make CCTV footage of the election process available.

The EC then wrote to the Union law ministry and asked for amendments to Section 93 of the Conduct of Elections Rules, he alleged. The Union Government “worked day and night” and amended the rules, the Congress leader said.

“It shows that the government and the Election Commission colluded with each other,” Patole claimed, asking why the EC needed to hide information and why the government does not want people to know how many voters visited a polling booth.

The Congress has approached the Supreme Court and challenged this order of the Election Commission, he added.

Referring to the crash of the Air India aircraft in Ahmedabad and the Pahalgam terror attack, he asked why the Prime Minister and Home Minister did not take responsibility for these incidents and resign.

After the 26/11 terror attack in Mumbai, the Congress took responsibility and asked then Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to resign, he said.

On the issue of Hindi being introduced from Class I in schools in Maharashtra, Patole said such issues were being raised to divert the attention from main problems.

MNS chief Raj Thackeray has criticised the “imposition” of Hindi on students in the state.  “There is match-fixing between (chief minister) Devendra Fadnavis and Raj Thackeray to divert attention. Are issues such as farmers’ problems, unemployment and inflation over?” he asked.