Chief Election Commissioner MS Gill, who faces the onerous task of conducting free and fair elections in the world's largest democracy, must be a sad man today. Despite the hard work put in by him and his colleagues, political parties in the fray are flooding the commission with complaints that the EC is not allowing them a level playing field.

Though there is nothing unusual about such complaints during election campaign, what has lent seriousness to them is that perhaps for the first time, the Prime Minister himself has voiced dissatisfaction with the commission's work. Vajpayee is reported to have said that Election Commission's response to the alleged attempt by the Rashtriya Janata Dal and its allies to rig elections in Bihar has been unsatisfactory.

The Bharatiya Janata Party and Samata Party have also found the commission's reply that duplicate ballot boxes discovered in Bihar recently were "wrongly numbered" as "unconvincing". The alleged discovery ofexcess ballot papers has further added to Gill's woes. The CEC, however, is equally concerned that it must continue to live up to the the trust reposed in it by the Constitution and the electorate and must ensure that no one should benefit from its actions.

Having received a severe dressing down from the Supreme Court over its order banning exit polls from September 3 to October 3, Gill now faces a doubly difficult task of ensuring peaceful elections in the last two phases. The CEC has great constitutional power at his disposal, but the same powers make him accountable for whatever disturbances that may mar the election process.

Dinesh Chandra