The Election Commission has acted against the Telangana government on charges of exerting undue influence on the Assembly election through a welfare scheme.

The poll panel has remained silent on the Congress’s allegation of a similar attempt recently by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to influence polls.

The EC on Monday withdrew the permission previously granted to the Telangana government to provide financial aid to farmers under the Rythu Bandhu scheme at the start of rabi sowing.

The panel’s action came after state minister T. Harish Rao, who is also a Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) candidate for the November 30 polls in Telangana, announced that the payments would be completed on November 28 — the last day of campaigning.

In its notice to the state’s chief electoral officer, the EC reiterated the conditions it had laid down for granting its “no-objection” to the scheme’s implementation during the poll period.

These included: no new beneficiaries, no publicity, no public function, no involvement of any political functionary, and only direct electronic transfer of the amount.

The poll panel said that Rao’s statement “has not only violated the provisions of MCC contained in Para VII of Model Code of Conduct but also conditions laid down as above by publicising the release under the scheme, and thereby disturbed the level playing field in the ongoing election process”.

It observed that there wasn’t any fixed date for making payments under the scheme.

In a rejoinder, the BRS said that Rao had merely thanked the EC and that the Rythu Bandhu was an ongoing scheme.

Asking the EC to withdraw its order, the party said: “PM Kisan Scheme is also allowed to disburse the amount and that amount is already deposited into the farmers’ account, and there is no difference between both the schemes so far as assistance to the farmers are (sic) considered. The stoppage of disbursement would cause irreparable loss to the farmers since the agricultural season would be lost.”

On November 4, Prime Minister Modi had announced at a campaign rally in Durg, Chhattisgarh, that the Centre’s 5kg food grains given free to the poor since the pandemic would continue for another five years across India.

After the Congress objected saying Modi’s statement was a violation of the poll code, the Prime Minister slammed the party at a rally in Damoh, Madhya Pradesh, on November 8.

“Let them (the Congress) commit this sin (of objecting to his remarks), I will continue to do good work for the people…. Eighty crore people will get free ration for the next five years,” he said.

A senior EC source said: “The Telangana finance minister made a statement saying that farmers will get the amount while having breakfast on the day the silence period begins. In previous by-polls in this state, we have had complaints of welfare funds being transferred to beneficiaries on polling day, and voters went to vote only after it came. This is akin to bribery.”

The source added: “Regarding freebies promised by parties and campaigners, the matter is in the Supreme Court. This is a grey area on which an understanding is developing both legislatively and judicially. The EC has introduced a proforma for parties to explain the financial rationale and viability of these promises.”

The poll panel has not acted on the Congress’s complaints against the allegedly incendiary speeches made by Union home minister Amit Shah in Chhattisgarh, and by Modi in Rajasthan.