Having petitioned the Election Commission several times against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah over alleged model code violations, the Congress on Saturday said it may now approach courts seeking action against them. The Congress said the model code of conduct has become a ‘Modi Code of Conduct’. “We are astonished and sadly compelled to say that the model code of conduct has become the ‘Modi Code of Conduct’.We are saddened to say that as if in the second word in the Election Commission, the letter ‘C’ has been dropped and it has become the Election Omission as far as Modi-Shah duo is concerned,” Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said. Click Here For ELection News He said the Congress has given 37 representations in the last five to six weeks, out of which ten can be categorized in three categories - “hate speeches, virulent, divisive, polarizing”, both by Shah and Modi. “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 told a press conference, adding that silence of the EC can be construed as approval. “Never has there been a more audacious set of individuals who for petty party electoral gains have turned a blind eye as if the Election Commission does not exist in this country, the model code of conduct does not exist and there is no Constitution of India, no level playing field,” he said. Singhvi also led a delegation of leaders from five parties, including the TMC, RJD, NCP and the TDP and asked it to give directions against use of the BJP’s “party name” in ballot paper. “On April 26, during the commissioning of EVMs and specifically at Barrackpore parliamentary constituency (in West Bengal), it was discovered that the symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party was different from the one notified with the Election Commission of India. It was found that the initials ‘BJP’ were written under the symbol of the Bharatiya Janata Party,” the petition said. “It can be clearly seen that the initials of Bharatiya Janata Party i.e BJP are printed at the bottom of Lotus symbol. (It) is highly objectionable and in blatant violation.of the Election Conduct Rules 1961 and Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968,” it said. The ballot papers issued for other Constituencies in West Bengal do not contain the initials of the BJP, the parties said, and argued that the “symbol approved for Bharatiya Janata Party is ‘Lotus’ and does not contain the word ‘BJP’ in any iteration.” ‘EC partisan towards BJP’ In Mumbai, former Union finance minister P Chidambaram accused the EC of being partisan. “The EC has failed the people of India. It has been extremely partisan towards the BJP. It has been reluctant to take action over blatant poll violations by the ruling party,” he told mediapersons.
