Sunday, May 15 2005 19:16 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: Outgoing Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishna Murthy today (May 15, 2005) said that the recent controversy over senior bureaucrat L V Saptharishi's remarks on the countermanding of Chapra Lok Sabha polls was aimed at "denigrating" and "weakening" the Commission.

"I felt it was sad. It was very unfortunate such things should have happened. My own inference is it is an attempt to denigrate the Election Commission so that its authority gets weakened", he told reporters on the last day in office at the Nirvachan Sadan in New Delhi.

Krishna Murthy said that he was "upset" as the credibility of the Commission's decision was being "questioned and politicised" and added he was certain this "agni pariksha" was also good for the Commission to come out with flying colours.

Krishna Murthy, who will be succeeded by senior most Election Commissioner B B Tandon tomorrow (May 16, 2005), favoured turning the Model Code of Conduct into a law to give penal powers to the EC.