New Delhi: In what may give the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fresh ammunition to take on the opposition in the run up to the assembly polls, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday criticized the poll body on micro-blogging platform Twitter as he wrote Election ‘Commission’.
“Election ‘Commission’,” he tweeted.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr">Election “Commission”.</p>— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) <a href="https://news.abplive.com/news/aap-mla-amanatullah-khan-files-police-complaint-against-dasna-priest-for-his-alleged-remarks-against-prophet-1451437">April 3, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Wayanad MP’s outburst against the poll body comes amid the ongoing row over a video purportedly showing an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) being transported in the private vehicle of a sitting BJP MLA in Assam and a reduction of campaign ban duration on Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
With the video of the officers transporting an EVM in a vehicle belonging to Assam MLA and BJP’s Patharkandi candidate Krishnendu Paul going viral on social media, the opposition parties raised concerns over the management of EVMs in poll-bound states.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra shared the clip on Twitter and said the Election Commission “needs to start acting decisively on these complaints and a serious re-evaluation of the use of EVM’s needs to be carried out by all national parties”.
READ: 'Put Down Guns, Work For All': PM Modi's Outreach To Militants In Assam
Meanwhile, the Election Commission earlier in the day reduced the 48-hour ban on Himanta Biswa Sarma from campaigning or speaking in public including on social media to 24 hours
The poll body issued the 48-hour ban order on Friday evening on a complaint by the Congress that Sarma had openly threatened to send Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) leader Hagrama Mohilary to jail by misusing the National Investigating Agency (NIA).