The Election Commission on Saturday asked Bharatiya Janata Party chief JP Nadda and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to respond to the complaints made by both parties against each other in the run-up to the Assembly elections in Jharkhand and Maharashtra.
Voting for the Jharkhand Assembly polls will be held in two phases on November 13 and November 20, whereas all 288 constituencies in Maharashtra will go to polls in a single phase on November 20. The counting of votes for both the states will take place on November 23.
On Saturday, the Election Commission reminded the parties of its directions released during the Lok Sabha poll campaigns, when it had asked the star campaigners to “correct their discourse, exercise care and maintain decorum”.
On Monday, the BJP approached the Election Commission seeking direction to register a first information report against Congress MP and Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi for “promoting enmity”.
The BJP alleged that Gandhi had in a speech in Mumbai accused the party and its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh of trying to destroy the Constitution of India. The party accused the Congress leader of violating the Model Code of Conduct.
The Model Code of Conduct is a set of guidelines issued by the Election Commission for political parties, candidates and governments to follow during an election. It sets guardrails for speeches, meetings, processions, election manifestos and other aspects of the polls.
On Wednesday, the Congress wrote to the Election Commission against Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s statements that are “blatant in violation of provisions of the Model Code of Conduct”.
During a speech in Jharkhand’s Dhanbad on Tuesday, Shah alleged that the Congress and its allies “were against Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes; promoting terrorism in the country”, said the party.
It called the statements “false, divisive, malicious, and slanderous”.
The party had also submitted representation earlier to the poll body over “a communal and divisive advertisement published on the official ‘X’ handle of the BJP i.e., BJP4India”.
“It depicts Rahul Gandhi taking away reservations from the SC, ST and OBC communities and giving them to members of a particular religious minority community; in furtherance of a false narrative that is a consistent part of BJP’s electoral campaigning,” the representation said, reported The Indian Express.
