NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India sought formal responses from Bharatiya Janata Party President JP Nadda and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge over the complaints filed by both parties against each other, alleging the violation of the Model Code of Conduct by star campaigners during Maharashtra, Jharkhand assembly election and By-polls.
The Commission asked the parties to send the responses by 1 PM on November 18, Monday. ECI also reminded their earlier advisory sent to BJP and Congress dated May 22, 2024, during Lok Sabha Elections, to keep star campaigners and leaders under check so that public decorum is not flouted.
BJP files complaint over Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Constitution’ remark, calls his speech full of falsehoods and lies
In a letter, submitted to the ECI, BJP filed complaint against Rahul Gandhi‘s claim that the saffron party wanted to “destroy the Constitution.”
The saffron party quoted Gandhi’s purported November 6 speech from a rally in poll-bound Maharashtra, wherein he accused the BJP and RSS of trying to destroy the constitution.
“If you take out the list of vice chancellors of India’s universities, you won’t find any merit. There is only one criteria for appointment- RSS membership. If you want to become vice-chancellor, take a RSS membership on Science, on Geography, on History…even if you don’t know anything that does not matter when you are from the RSS. And this is happening not just with one institution, but with all institutions of the country,” Rahul said according to BJP.
According to the BJP complaint, Rahul Gandhi also alleged Apple iPhones and Boeing airplanes being manufactured in other states at Maharashtra’s expense.
The BJP also alleged that the Congress leader is inciting the youths of Maharashtra which is “immensely dangerous for the unity and integrity of the nation”.
“As only expected and in line with his typical pattern of campaigning and general conduct, Shri Rahul Gandhi’s speech was full of falsehood and lies, intending to create disaffection, enmity and ill-will between the states of Union of India,” the BJP wrote.
‘False, divisive, malicious, and slanderous statements’: Congress files complaint against BJP’s Amit Shah
In a letter, the Congress recalled November 12 Union minister Amit Shah’s speech during an election rally in Dhanbad, Jharkhand and said that he delivered a “slew of false, divisive, malicious, and slanderous statements about the Congress and its allies.
According to the complaint, Shah alleged that the INC and its allies were; (a) against Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribes (ST), and Other Backward Classes (OBCs); (b) promoting terrorism in the country.
” In what has become a common narrative across the BJP’s campaign in Jharkhand, Amit Shah has also accused the INC of planning to take away reservations from members of the ST, SC and OBC communities and granting them to members of a particular religious minority community,” the letter read.
The Congress also said that Shah have been made with the sole intent of inciting voters on the grounds of religion and caste; in order to consolidate votes and inducing them into voting for the BJP by stoking communal insecurity.
