De-recognise All India Congress Party – Swamy’s petition to Election Commission

DR. SUBRAMANIAN SWAMY’S ‘PETITION’ TO THE ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA

From: President, Janata Party, New Delhi

To: The Secretary, Election Commission of India, Nirvachan Sadan, Ashoka Road, New Delhi (Received by ECI on 3 Nov. 2012)

Petition for seeking de-recognition of the All India Congress Party headed by Ms. Sonia Gandhi as President

Dear Sir,

Please treat this letter as a Petition to the Election Commission for holding hearings under Paragraph 16A of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968 whereunder you are empowered to suspend or withdraw recognition to a political party for its failure to follow lawful directions and instructions of the Election Commission.

According to the Election Law as codified in Section 29A-C of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (Annexure 2), read with the relevant Rules, Orders and Guidelines for political parties, and also read with Section 13A of the Income-tax Act, 1961 (Annexure 3), I hereby state that the written admission by senior Congress leader and Spokesman, Mr. Janardhan Dwivedi, in his press release dated November 2, 2012 (Annexure 1) admitting that the Indian National Congress had loaned (a sum of more than Rs. 90 crores) to a company incorporated under Section 3 of the Companies Act, 1956 by name Associated Journals Pvt. Ltd.

This loan (of such a substantial amount) is in violation of the Guidelines and Rules that has to be mandatorily followed by political parties for registration as well as recognition. Section 29A to C of the RPA (1951) and Section 13A of IT Act (1961) do not make any provision for a political party to extend lons to companies, with or without interest. By virtue of the General Clauses Act, this means the intention of the Parliament was to prohibit parties from giving loans. Rules and Guidelines also make it mandatory that no political party shall utilize its right to receive donations to extend loans to commercial ventures whether the loan is with or without interest and every political party must use funds for its political activity only. As pointed out in Parliament by a Minister (Annexure 4) in a matter of the BCCI which as a charitable institution, got income tax exemption, this exemption was not only cancelled but a severe fine was imposed for the offence of extending a loan to the IPL. Applying the radio of this decision, the Congress Party has prima facie committed an offence under the electoral law as well as the Income-tax law for which it is necessary for you to hold hearings.

I submit, the Election Commission therefore must decide under Paragraph 16A of the said Symbol Order to de-recognize the All India Congress Party.

I am moving this application in the public interest and as the President of the Janata Party founded in 1977 by Jayaprakash Naryan, and which is a registered party with the Election Commission of India.

Yours sincerely,

Sd. Subramanian Swamy

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