New Delhi, May 23 (UNI) The Congress on Thursday expressed surprise over the Election Commission of not mentioning the names of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah for violating Model Code of Conduct (MCC) in any of its document, and alleged that the constitutional body had become a ‘one-sided and follower of power’.
Addressing a press conference at the AICC headquarters here, senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said, “Despite our complaint, the Prime Minister and Home Minister were not named in any document of the Election Commission. The commission did not even warn anyone, nor did it impose any ban, nor was any blame put on anyone”.
The senior Supreme Court lawyer said that the Election Commission wrote to the presidents of both the National parties, Congress and BJP, to tell their star campaigners not to violate the Model Code of Conduct.
“All these things do not befit a high-level constitutional institution. This is against the constitutional responsibilities of the institution. This is the Election Commission and not the election agent of any party,” Singhvi said.
He said, “We are surprised that when a constitutional institution does not follow the Constitution and shows inclination towards power, then it should be understood that this is the end of democracy”.
The Senior Congress leader, while taking on the Election Commission on the disclosure of Form 17C data before the Supreme Court, said that the Election Commission’s response was ‘strange and a kind of fallacy’.
He said that 17C was a form that records how many votes were cast in a polling station; which machine with which serial number is installed in which polling station and how many votes were cast on each machine and all these details has to be put up on the Election Commission’s website.
Singhvi said, “The Election Commission says that the data can be tampered, someone can morph the photo and in such a situation data cannot be uploaded and this response is strange”.
He alleged that the reply of the Election Commission was just an escape mechanism. ‘This only showed that the constitutional body’s inclination was one-sided’.
