Government of India

Seshan dusted off the Model Code of Conduct. It was a campaign rulebook that had basically been sitting on a shelf gathering dust since the 1960s, but Seshan gave it teeth. Suddenly, sitting ministers and powerful ruling parties were getting slapped with violations. He ordered repolls. He disqualified politicians for blowing past spending limits. For the first time ever, the threat of cancelling an election wasn’t just empty talk. It was a loaded weapon.