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The Congress and the Left attacked the the Centre on Friday over the Election Commission’s decision to not to announce the Gujarat Assembly polls alongside the Himachal elections.
The Congress alleged that the Commission’s announcement, made on Thursday, was at the instruction of the BJP-ruled Centre, and said the panel set aside past practices, conventions and precedents to help the ruling party in Gujarat.
The BJP refuted the charges and urged the Congress not to indulge in any baseless campaign against a Constitutional authority, the Election Commission. Congress spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Singhvi told reporters that the BJP wanted to covert the EC to “Election Omission”. Singhvi said the announcement on Gujarat elections was delayed to help Prime Minister Narendra Modi announce election sops in Gujarat during his visit to the State on October 16.
“In a last-ditch effort to save itself from the thrashing which it will receive from the hands of the people of Gujarat in the forthcoming elections, the BJP has resorted to shameless pressure tactics on the EC and has most blatantly denigrated the authority and power of the Election Commission,” he said.
“Just like it belittled the authority of the RBI, judiciary, and other important institutions, it [the BJP] is trying to pressurise the EC,” Singhvi added. Singhvi also accused the Commission of handing a rope to the BJP to climb the cliff, at a time when the BJP is down and out and is looking to somehow lure the electorate with sops. He added that State government and the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had made some big announcements for various sections hours before the EC announced dates for the Himachal Pradesh election. “This is bribery. This is collective or attempted bribery.”
Both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh have held elections together since 1998 (except in 2002-03, due to riots in Gujarat), Singhvi added.
The BJP said the Congress should “fight politically, fight properly” in Gujarat without resorting to needless attacks on constitutional bodies.
The CPI(M) said it was strange that the EC had announced the date of election for Himachal Pradesh Assembly while withholding the announcement of date for Gujarat Assembly elections. “Usually when elections are due within a period of six months, these States are combined and a joint announcement has been made. The Model Code of Conduct is now enforced for Himachal Pradesh but not for Gujarat,” a CPI(M) statement said.
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