Chennai, Nov 11: Former Chief Election Commissioner TN Seshan passed away in Chennai on Sunday.
The 86-year old Seshan died of cardiac arrest.
Seshan, a 1955 batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre, had led the poll body from 1990 to 1996.
Born in 1932 in Kerala’s Palakkad district, he had joined the civil services in 1955 and served as secretary of several departments in Tamil Nadu and at the Centre during his decades-long career.
Before he was appointed as Chief Election Commissioner, Seshan was the Cabinet Secretary, the senior most position in the civil services.
In 1997, Seshan had unsuccessfully contested the Presidential election against KR Narayanan.
He made the EC powerful within the existing laws and pleading for electoral reforms.
Appointed by Prime Minister Chandrashekhar, Seshan served as a dreaded CEC from 1990 to 1996. He was cited as a shining example of what a CEC should be. Even the Supreme Court once told the Commission to aspire for the kind of credibility it enjoyed during Seshan’s days.
Why do people remember a CEC who was being described as a maverick? Seshan’s story is indeed fascinating.
An IAS topper of the 1955 batch, he had once told an interviewer. “I had never conducted an election. I went with two principles: zero delay and zero deficiency.”
He followed both throughout his tenure. He wielded the big stick and implemented the election manual in letter and spirit.
Some of his big achievements include implementation of the election process and the Model Code of Conduct, introduction of voter ID cards, enforcing limits on poll expenses, and elimination of several malpractices like distribution of liquor, bribing voters, ban on wall writing, use of loud speakers, use of religion in election speeches etc.
He introduced election observers and also forced the candidates to keep accurate accounts of campaign expenses.
Seshan took many bold measures. For instance, under his strict watch, a serving Governor who campaigned for his son had to resign. The Chief Secretary of UP was taken to task for issuing an advertisement in a newspaper at the cost of public exchequer.
He recommended to Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao to sack two of his ministers – Sitaram Kesri and Kalpanath Rai – for allegedly influencing the voters, but Rao did not act. In 1992, the Left parties even called for his impeachment.
The evolution of the poll panel has been quite fascinating. While until 1989, it was a single-member commission, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi made it into a multi-member one on October 16, 1989, as he was not quite happy with the then Chief Election Commissioner and wanted to clip his powers.
This had given the government enough space to put its own nominees but they had a very short tenure only till January 1, 1990.
Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao again made it into a three-member commission on October 1, 1993 and since then the multi-member panel has been in operation.
