New Delhi: Questioning the Election Commission of India's "total silence and total inaction," the Congress on Monday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of campaigning during voting for the second phase of Gujarat Assembly elections.
Addressing a press conference, Congress leader Pawan Khera said, "On the voting day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did a "roadshow" of two and half hours when he went to cast his vote. The party will appeal to the Election Commission against the PM for flouting the Model Code of Conduct by holding a "political roadshow" in Ahmedabad."
The Congress leader also said that the party will also approach the poll panel against Home Minister Amit Shah for accompanying a Gujarat MP who was seen campaigning and chanting BJP while talking.
Notably, both PM Modi and Shah cast their votes at different polling booths in Ahmedabad on Monday.
Besides Congress, other Opposition parties like the Trinamool Congress, have objected to PM Modi's grand entry to the polling station amid cheers from the crowd.
Through all legal means possible, the party will ensure that such publicity comes under the purview of election expenditure of the party, Khera added.
While addressing reporters, Congress also brought up the incident where a Congress MLA in Gujarat who went "missing" last evening, prompting a post-midnight tweet from Rahul Gandhi, alleged this morning that he spent the night in a forest after being attacked with swords by a mob led by his BJP rival.
Notably, in the afternoon hours on Sunday, tribal candidate and sitting MLA of Kanti Kharadi, who is seeking re-election from Danta in Gujarat's Banaskantha, wrote to the Election Commission seeking additional security as he apprehended a threat to his life, Khera said, adding, "By evening he was "attacked by 24 people, gundas or the BJP" and the Election Commission did not pay timely attention to his pleas."
Khera further said that they have also shared with the Election Commission visuals of BJP distributing liquor in Gujarat, where prohibition is in force.