Poll code: Nothing really model about it

This, of course, has not happened overnight. It has reached this stage because critical issues confronting the electoral system have not been addressed over the years. To ensure fair and free polls, the Election Commission of India (ECI) was given statutory status. In 1962, the idea of a ‘model code’, experimented for the first time in Kerala in 1960, was adopted. In 1979, certain restraints were introduced for the party in power. In 1991, Election Commissioner T N Seshan demonstrated what a proactive and independent ECI could do to ensure independence.