The Congress on Saturday said it may approach courts seeking action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah over their alleged repeated model code violations. A Congress-led delegation of Opposition parties also approached the Election Commission alleging display of party name only under the BJP symbol on EVMs during a mock poll in West Bengal's Barrackpore constituency. The poll panel, however, maintained that the same insignia was used for the party in 2014 Lok Sabha polls too.
Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi alleged that the two leaders have "cheated" on the issue of level playing field for all parties during elections and questioned the "silence of mega policeman" Election Commission.
"We have a right to approach the courts seeking action over model code violations... We can exercise that option ... The mega policeman has turned a blind eye," Singhvi said at AICC briefing. Taking a jibe at Election Commission, he called it "Election Omission" and wondered whether Modi and Shah are outside the ambit of the model code of conduct, which he dubbed as "Modi code of conduct".
He claimed that the two leaders have violated the poll code broadly under three categories: polarisation of votes, invoking armed forces in campaigns and taking out rallies on election day. "The EC has taken action against several leaders for violating the poll code based on our complaints. We appreciate that. Since the precedent has been set, why not take action against Modi and Shah," he said.
A delegation of opposition parties comprising senior Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Ahmed Patel and Trinamool Congress' Dinesh Trivedi and Derek O'Brien met Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora over the issue and demanded that either all such EVMs be removed from the remaining phases of elections or names of other parties be added too.
The EVMs display the party symbols, name of the candidates and their photographs. "On EVMs, letters 'BJP' are visible under the party's symbol. No other party's name is there. Either remove all machines which mention BJP clearly or all other parties' name should be added in all such machines. Till then the use of these machines has to be totally stopped in the elections," Singhvi told the reporters after meeting the CEC.
Former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi, who is also a sitting MP from Barrackpore, said this was a "clear fraud on the people" and an attempt to "hack the EVMs" . He also showed purported photographs of the EVM where the party symbol of Lotus included the words BJP .
"The commissioning of EVMs was going on in my constituency on Friday. We saw the name of BJP clearly written under its Lotus symbol. My party people pointed this out and we requested the returning officer to stop the commissioning. We approached the state election body also. But the CEO could not take a decision saying elections are already going on," he said.
Election Commission, in a letter to the chief electoral officer of West Bengal, said that it has received a complaint regarding use of party's name in ballot and that the same symbol was used by the BJP in the 2014 elections. "There is nothing to suggest that it reflects the name of the party," the EC letter said.