Advani's suggestion on choosing CAG, ECs get DMK, CPI(M) nod

Chennai/Shimla: BJP veteran L K Advani’s suggestion for a collegium to appoint Election Commissioners and CAG was today backed by UPA ally DMK and opposition CPI(M). DMK chief M Karunanidhi said the BJP leader’s views could not be ignored and expressed the confidence that the Centre would accord due importance to it. “I am also in agreement with the contents in the letter (of Advani). It cannot be ignored just because it is the opposition view,” the DMK patriarch said writing in party mouthpiece ‘Murasoli’. [caption id=“attachment_333193” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“PTI”]  [/caption] Karunanidhi, whose DMK is a key constituent of UPA, said “Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the central government will accord importance to the opinion and consider those views.” CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechuri told reporters in Shimla that his party agreed with Advani that there should be a collegium for appointments of Election Commissioners and CAG on the pattern of Chief Vigilance Commissioner. It was the stated stand of CPI (M) that such appointments should be made by a collegium consisting of representatives of the President, the Vice President, the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, he added. Advani had in a letter to the Prime Minister on Sunday voiced concern over the present system of appointment by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister. He had suggested that posts like Election Commissioner and Comptroller and Auditor General of India be appointed by the “broad-based collegium,” comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India, the Law Minister and the Leaders of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. PTI