During the Lok Sabha elections 2019, the Election Commission of India turned into the favourite punching bag for our netas. Here are five instances when the politicians lambasted the EC.
New Delhi: Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday alleged that the Election Commission of India is being run by the Modi-Shah duo. However, this is not the first time that the BJP power couple has been criticised. Several political parties, including BJP, have hit out at them, time and again.
Meanwhile, the constitutional body that runs election in the country has turned into the favourite punching bag for our netas. Here are five instances when the politicians lambasted the EC.
After the EC invoked Article 324, which barred election campaigning in Bengal from 10 pm on Thursday, Banerjee cried foul and said, "Never seen this type of EC. It's full of RSS people”.
She even went a step further to allege that it was not the EC but Narendra Modi and Amit Shah who directed the removal of state home secretary.
The EC invoked Article 324, which vests the power of “superintendence, direction and control” on itself after violence erupted during Amit Shah's roadshow on Wednesday.
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Amit Shah called the EC a “mute spectator” for the violence during his roadshow. Shah also accused Trinamool “goons” of vandalising the statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.
While blaming the poll body for not doing enough, Shah took a jibe at Mamata, “I would not have escaped unhurt without CRPF protection. Many of our workers have been killed there and an attack on me was obvious. But after yesterday’s incident, it is clear that Trinamool can go to any extent."
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Back in April, when the election campaigning started to peak, DMK leader Kanimozhi called the EC a ‘puppet. She was making that angry outburst in the context of the IT raids that were being conducted on premises belonging to DMK leadership, including herself. Income Tax officials and the Election Commission's static surveillance team carried out a joint search at her house in Tamil Nadu's Thoothukodi.
Last month, around the same time Kanimozhi trained her guns at the poll body, the BSP supremo Mayawati labelled it ‘anti-Dalit’.
"The Election Commission, which has an anti-Dalit mindset, stopped me from campaigning in the capital of Dalits, Agra. The victory of BSP candidates in order to form its government at the Centre will be the appropriate reply to the Commission”, she said in a political rally.
This outburst was after the EC had imposed a 48-hour ban on Mayawati and on her campaigns for her "provocative" communal remarks which, the poll body observed, had the "propensity to polarise the elections".
Early this months, Congress president Rahul Gandhi put a serious charge against the EC by calling it “completely biased”. Gandhi said, "The working style of Modi, the ruling BJP and the RSS is to put pressure on institutions. This is evident everywhere — SC, EC, Planning Commission, RBI. That is their approach. We do not expect that the EC will not be affected by that pressure”. He even added, “…anybody who falls to this pressure, is committing a crime”.
The election may be over in a weeks’ time, but the muck thrown on the constitutional body by our netas will take longer to wash away.
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