Cong seeks election body’s action against PM Modi

New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday wrote to the Election Commission seeking action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his “Congress shielded terrorism for vote bank” remark and said he has crossed the “lakshman rekha”.

Taking strong objections to Modi’s charge at a rally in Ballary on Friday, the opposition party accused him of making “malicious and false” allegations to vitiate the atmosphere poll-bound Karnataka.

Voting for the 224 assembly seats in the state will take place on May 10 and results will be out on May 13.

Mounting a fresh attack on the Congress, Prime Minister Modi on Friday had alleged that for the sake of vote bank politics, it has nurtured, given shelter and surrendered before terror.

The Congress wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner and Election Commissioners also against top BJP leaders, including Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, for “polarising the atmosphere in Karnataka”.

“While we have objections to the entire tone and tenor of the prime minister’s speech, in this representation we wish to highlight the completely unprecedented and malicious allegations, far worse than any ever made by a sitting prime minister in the history of India,” Congress general secretaries Randeep Surjewala and K C Venugopal said in a memorandum sent to the Election Commission (EC) .

“He has not only crossed the ‘lakshman rekha’ but brazenly tarnished every norm and decorum set by his predecessors. This cannot go unchecked, unanswered and unpunished,” the memorandum said.

They also claimed “blatant” violations of electoral laws as well as the Indian Penal Code and said “these alarming and brazen violations committed by the prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi (on May 5th, 2023), call for the immediate exercise of this commission’s powers under Article 324 of the Constitution”.