“When Election Commissioners were brave…”: Rahul on TN Seshan

TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday remembered TN Seshan for initiating impartial, brave, and feared reforms in the Election Commission, something which, the Congress leader said was lacking in the poll body today. Mr Seshan, who ruthlessly enforced the model code of conduct and led the game-changing electoral reforms in the 1990s, died in Chennai on Sunday following a cardiac arrest. He was 86.

“Unlike today, there was a time when our Election Commissioners were impartial, respected, brave and feared. Shri T N Seshan was one of them. My condolences to his family on his passing,” Mr Gandhi said on Twitter. Several top senior Congress leaders condoled Mr Seshan’s demise and paid rich tributes to him.

Born on December 15, 1932 in Thirunellai, Palakkad district of Kerala, TN Seshan ruthlessly enforced the model code of conduct much to the chagrin of political parties. Till he took over, political parties ferrying people to polling stations was considered quite “normal,” and it was during Seshan”s stint as CEC that it became impossible with the model code being made sacrosanct.