New Delhi: After submitting its reply in the matter of notice issued by the Election Commission (EC) over “corruption rate card” advertisements, the Congress on Monday accused the poll panel of “bias” over its notice on the party’s “corruption rate card” ads targeting the BJP government in Karnataka.
However, Congress has sought more time to submit its response to the matter. On the issue, party leader and lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the 24-hour window provided by the Election Commission for responding to the notice was insufficient with the Karnataka assembly poll campaign drawing to a close.
The Election Commission had on Saturday issued a notice to the Karnataka Congress over its “corruption rate card” advertisements published in newspapers in the run-up to the May 10 state polls and sought “empirical evidence” to prove its allegations by Sunday evening.
The notice was issued following a complaint lodged by the BJP.
The Congress had released a set of posters and advertisements listing “corruption rates” in the state between 2019
and 2023 while terming the
BJP government a “trouble engine”.
“...the actions of the Commission are prima facie violative of Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, which provide a fundamental guarantee against arbitrariness in administrative action as well as against bias, official acts of mala fide, violations of natural justice and which provide the most vital guarantee of equality,” the Congress said.
“...it is clear that the Indian National Congress is being subject to unfair and unequal treatment by the Commission. Leaders of the INC are held to a standard that seems to be reserved only for the opposition. They are asked to explain themselves for the slightest perceived offence and their advertisements are flagged for content that is far tamer than the ones allowed for the BJP,” it said.
The Election Commission can never allow itself to be seen as an organisation that turns a “Nelsonial blind eye” to egregious violations by the ruling party, it said.
“This proactive zeal seems to be reserved solely for the Opposition, as we have through numerous detailed, documented and numbered representations sought to bring to the Commission’s attention the brazen, shocking, egregious, heinous and repeated violations of almost every single electoral guideline, by Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, JP Nadda, Adityanath as well as other BJP leaders,” it said.