The Election Commission (EC) has taken cognisance of violations of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi. The poll body on Thursday asked the Congress and the BJP to respond to the EC notice by 11 am on April 29.
Both the BJP and the Congress had moved the ECI against each other alleging speeches inciting hatred and religion.
The ECI has invoked Section 77 of the Representation of the People Act and held party presidents responsible, as a first step, to rein in star campaigners.
In the notice sent to the BJP, the ECI asked the party to respond to the complaints filed by opposition parties accusing the Prime Minister of delivering a "divisive and defamatory" statement during his speech in Rajasthan's Banswara.
The Prime Minister, while addressing an election rally, had hit out at the Congress manifesto, alleging the party planned to redistribute the wealth of people to Muslims if it came to power. He also cited former PM Manmohan Singh's remark that the minority community had the first claim on the country's resources.
The Congress had approached the EC against the speech, asking the poll body to initiate action against the Prime Minister as his statements were "divisive", and "malicious" and targeted a particular religious community.
In its letter addressed to BJP President J P Nadda, the Election Commission asked him to respond to complaints. It also asked Nadda to bring to the notice of all-star campaigners of the party to "set high standards of political discourse and observe provisions of model code of conduct in letter and spirit".
In the notice to Congress, the ECI asked the party to respond to complaints filed by the BJP against Rahul Gandhi and party president Mallikarjun Kharge with regard to their respective remarks.
This is probably the first time that the panel has taken cognisance of a complaint against any prime minister though the letters from the EC did not directly name either Modi. It did not name Gandhi or Kharge either.
The saffron party filed a complaint against Rahul Gandhi with EC, claiming that the Congress leader hatched a conspiracy a to cause North-South rift. The BJP alleged that Rahul was making every effort to make North and South fight. "The country is progressing but Rahul Gandhi is talking about dividing the country into pieces. We have complained about this in writing and demanded strict action," a BJP spokesperson said about the complaint.
The BJP had also written to EC that Gandhi levelled malafide and utterly sinister allegations against Modi during a speech in Coimbatore. It also accused Kharge of violating the model code by claiming that he was not invited to the Ram temple consecration ceremony due to discrimination against SCs and STs.
