Congress lists poll-code violations in 3 states, urges ECI to take action

Hyderabad: On Wednesday, a delegation of senior Congress leaders met with the chief election commissioner Rajiv Kumar and election commissioners and gave a list of ‘complaints and factual memoranda’ against alleged election code violations done by leaders from political parties in the poll-bound states of Chhattisgarh, Telangana, and Madhya Pradesh.

The Congress delegation had senior leaders from Telangana such as Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president and MP Revanth Reddy, MP Uttam Kumar Reddy, and MLA and CLP leader Bhatti Vikramarka.

Issues in Telangana

The Congress delegation requested a memorandum for the disbursement of benefits under schemes introduced by the Telangana State Government before the date of filing nominations on November 3 or after the polling of votes on November 30.

They also raised a complaint against ‘unlawful transfers and posting of police officers in the State of Telangana, who have been transferred without completing two and a half years of their tenure as is mandated by the Election Commission.’ Alleging favouritism by the government, the team complained about ‘allotment of election duty to specific officers in the State of Telangana, who publicly support a specific political party.’

Complaints against speeches

The Congress team raised a complaint against Union home minister, Amit Shah, for his election speech in Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh on October 16. They claimed that Amit Shah said, “….Bhupesh Baghel’s government for appeasement politics, and vote bank politics, lynched Chhattisgarh’s son Bhuneshwar Sahoo and got him killed…” and subsequently sought votes by stating, “BJP has pledged that we will bring justice to Bhuvneshwar Sahoo’s killers and in his honour, we are fielding his father Ishwar Sahoo as a candidate in the elections.”

They claimed that the speech violated the Indian Penal Code, 1860 and the Representation of People Act, 1951.

The team complained against Assam chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma’s election speech in Chhattisgarh where they claimed he incited violence against another community by saying, “If one Akbar comes to some place, he calls 100 Akbars. So, send him off as soon as possible, otherwise the land of Mata Kaushalya will get defiled.”

They also found fault with the Union Government’s alleged orders directing civil servants and Indian Army Soldiers to promote the achievements of the BJP-led Union Government.

“The Indian National Congress has consistently highlighted, exposed and documented electoral malpractices and brought them to the attention of the ECI for action and redressal,” the representation said.