Be it putting a cap on election expenditure of the candidates or be it using government helicopter for party campaigning, TN Seshan began reforms in the election process.
Chennai| Former Chief Election Commissioner TN Seshan, who gave a formidable identity to the Election Commission, breathed his last in Chennai on Sunday night. He was 87 years old. Seshan was the Chief Election Commissioner from 1990 to 1996. Seshan was labelled as a Congressman, but the Congress itself was upset with some of his decisions. Seshan often joked that he eats politicians for breakfast.
Once, after dissolving BJP governments in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh, former minister Arjun Singh said that elections in these states will be held after a year. However, Seshan immediately issued a press release, reminding that the Election Commission fixes the date of the election, not the minister. Seshan had also locked horns with former Bihar Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Strict about security
TN Seshan, who was Cabinet Secretary, once pulled a biscuit from Rajiv Gandhi‘s mouth, saying that the Prime Minister should not eat something that has not been tested before. At around 1 o’clock in the night of December 1990, the then Union Minister Subramaniam Swamy reached TN Seshan’s house. He asked if he would like to become the next Chief Election Commissioner? Swami kept convincing him for about 2 hours. But it was only after meeting Rajiv Gandhi that Seshan agreed.
Seshan’s election reform mission
Be it putting a cap on election expenditure of the candidates or be it using government helicopter for party campaigning, Seshan began reforms in the election process. Slogans on the walls, sticking posters, noise from loudspeakers, speeches that create communal tension in the name of propaganda, he took strict action on them all.
When TN Seshan was the Transport Commissioner in Chennai, a question arose that he did not know how to drive a bus, then how would he solve the problem of drivers? Getting back at his detractors, Seshan learned to re-fit the bus engine with driving. During the bus strike in Chennai, he drove a bus full of passengers up to 80 km.
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