The Election Commission of India has sent showcause notices to Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra for allegedly violating the model code, but has yet to act on an earlier complaint against home minister Amit Shah.
The action against Sarma came more than a week after he used the name of Chhattisgarh’s only Muslim minister as a metaphor for the community.
On October 19, the Congress submitted a video to the EC of Sarma’s speech in Kawardha the previous day where he is heard saying: “If one Akbar comes to some place, he calls 100 Akbars. So, send him off as soon as possible, otherwise the land of Mata Kaushalya will get defiled.”
The MLA for Kawardha is Congress minister Mohammed Akbar.
The BJP complained on Wednesday that Priyanka had said in a speech in Dausa on October 20: “I recently saw something on TV. I don’t know if it is true or not. PM Modi went to the Devnarayan temple and submitted an envelope in the donation box. People were wondering what it contained, but when it was opened Rs 21 came out of it.”
Sarma and Vadra have time until 5pm on October 30 to respond.
The Congress had complained against Shah for his speech in Rajnandgaon on October 16 in which he was heard referring to a communal riot victim and saying: “Bhupesh Baghel’s government for appeasement politics, and vote bank politics, lynched Chhattisgarh’s son Bhuneshwar Sahoo and got him killed.”
During the Karnataka polls in May, the Congress accused the EC of violating, “the concept of equality before the law and the conduct of ‘Free and Fair’ elections”— owing to its silence on complaints against speeches by Modi, Shah, and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.
