Karunanidhi backs Advani's plea for collegium

DMK president M. Karunanidhi, a key ally of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance, on Tuesday supported BJP leader L.K. Advani's suggestion that a broad-based collegium be formed to make appointments to constitutional bodies such as the Election Commission.

“I am in agreement with the views of Mr. Advani in his letter to the Prime Minster. You cannot afford to ignore these views,” he said in a statement.

Mr. Advani made out a strong case for a collegium, with the Prime Minister as its chairman and the Chief Justice of India, the Minister for Law and Justice and the Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha as its members.

Mr. Karunanidhi pointed to Mr. Advani's argument that the present system of Election Commission members being appointed by the President, only on the advice of the Prime Minister, did not inspire confidence in people and that appointments should be done in a bipartisan manner to remove any impression of bias or lack of transparency and fairness. He expressed the hope that the Prime Minister would attach importance to the senior BJP leader's opinion.