New Delhi: In the face of an attack on him by the NDA, which is seeking his removal, the government today came out in strong defence of Election Commissioner Navin Chawla and disclosed that it was considering a Constitutional amendment that will equate the CEC with other two members of the Commission.

"The demand for removal of Chawla is a political manoeuvre...and I am fully satisfied with the conduct of the EC (Chawla)," Bhardwaj said when asked about the BJP s contention that the CEC had the powers to remove Chawla.
Asked whether the government was considering bringing the Election Commissioners on par with the CEC, he said "yes, definitely. There is no difficulty. If this Constitutional amendment is to be brought...then we can definitely bring it. This is part of a package".

The BJP was quick to react to Bharadwaj's statement saying it was a "blatant subversion" of the Constitution to save Chawla "who is so close to Congress". The party would oppose any such move "tooth and nail", BJP spokesman Ravishankar Prasad said.

Given the numbers in the Lok Sabha, a Constitution amendment bill on this issue has poor chances of getting past in view of the stiff opposition from the NDA which has about 200 MPs.
Government has been of the view in the Supreme Court that an election commissioner can be removed only by the President, the appointing authority, and the CEC had no such power.
Raking up the case afresh, senior BJP leaders had approached Gopalaswamy on Wednesday demanding Chawla's removal maintaining that the CEC had powers to recommend his removal.

Source : PTI