Union Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday hit out at the Opposition over its march towards the Election Commission of India (ECI), accusing its leaders of attempting to ‘defame’ constitutional institutions by repeatedly questioning Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar and the poll process.Chouhan said Opposition parties should answer whether their electoral victories in Kerala, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jharkhand were also ‘illegal’ if they now believed that elections conducted under the existing system could not be trusted.“Opposition friends, think about it. You won in Kerala under the same system you are questioning today. You won in Karnataka. Was that victory illegal? Governments were formed by the Opposition in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and Jharkhand. Were those victories illegal?” Chouhan said.He also referred to the Congress’ performance in the Uttar Pradesh Lok Sabha elections and asked whether those results, too, should be considered invalid.His remarks came as INDIA bloc leaders marched from Parliament towards the ECI to protest over electoral rolls and demand accountability from the poll panel.Chouhan said accepting defeat was an essential part of democracy and accused the Opposition of undermining democratic institutions by refusing to accept electoral outcomes.“Accepting defeat is the basic spirit of democracy. Do not insult democracy and do not defame democratic institutions,” he said.The Union minister also defended the ECI’s exercise to revise electoral rolls, asking why the names of deceased persons, non-citizens or people registered at more than one place should remain on voter lists.“Why should the voter list not be clean? Why should the names of dead persons be on the voter list? Why should the name of someone who is not even a citizen of the country be there? Why should one person’s name appear at two places?” he asked.Chouhan said an accurate electoral roll was essential for ensuring the credibility of the democratic process. He warned that repeatedly questioning constitutional institutions could create public distrust in the electoral system and contribute to instability.“Do not commit the sin of pushing the country into instability and anarchy. The country and its people will never forgive this,” he said.The Opposition, however, has maintained that its concerns relate to the integrity and transparency of electoral rolls and the functioning of the ECI, rather than merely its electoral defeats.