NEW DELHI: Deferring some phases of the recently-held assembly polls due to the coronavirus pandemic could have led to a situation where holding the remaining phases under President s rule would have triggered sharper criticism about the poll panel favouring one party against another, Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said in a draft affidavit which he planned to file in the Madras high court and later in the Supreme Court.
In the draft affidavit, which could not be filed due to procedural reasons, Kumar also offered to quit and volunteered for personal punishment, saying that the institution needs to be absolved of the doubts cast on it to save the democracy lest everyone else start making insinuations and allegations in much more magnified, exponentially derogatory terms .