The Congress on Wednesday moved the Election Commission against the alleged misuse of state machinery by the Prime Minister’s Office for Narendra Modi’s election campaign, PTI reported.
Senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi claimed the Prime Minister’s Office had asked the NITI Aayog to write to bureaucrats at places where the prime minister was scheduled to campaign, and ask them to send local area knowledge ahead of Modi’s visits to these places. Singhvi alleged that the district officials were told to send the information within a day.
“The prime minister is like any other campaigner and the state machinery cannot be misused for campaigning,” said the Congress leader. “We have asked the EC to put an immediate stop to this.”
The Congress leader pointed out that former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was debarred on a similar charge 40 years ago.
Singhvi said the party also submitted another representation to the Election Commission against Modi’s rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Sagar district on May 6. The rally coincides with the fifth phase of Lok Sabha elections during which the Damoh Lok Sabha seat in the state will vote, he added. “The peculiar problem in this case is that three tehsils and Assembly constituencies of Sagar district – Banda, Rehli and Deori – form part of the Damoh parliamentary constituency,” the Congress told the poll panel.
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