Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Friday had alleged that the election commission had given the authority to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to announce the dates for Gujarat Assembly election in his last rally.

Chidambaram tweeted this remark yesterday, in wake of the announcement made by the election commission a few days back. The EC was supposed to announce the assembly election dates for both Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh, however, it only gave the scheduled date for Himachal polls. Responding to this decision, many opposition leaders had criticised the delaying of announcement for Gujarat Polls.

Congress had also alleged that EC had deliberately delayed the dates so that the BJP could announce last minute perks and sops for the people, which could not have been possible if the model code of conduct came into effect, after the announcement of the polls dates. The model code conduct bars any political parties or any political leader to announce any new schemes or sops until the voting is conducted and the results are declared.

Reacting to the tweet of Chidambaram, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Friday said that Congress party was scared of the upcoming polls in BJP-ruled state, Gujarat and is hence blaming the EC. In his statement to the press, Rupani said that “Chidambaram and the Congress are scared of the upcoming elections. We believe elections should happen in due time, and they will happen. But they the Congress are scared due to their desperation. And criticising the Election Commission is not the right thing in a democracy.”

The Congress had alleged that the EC, under the pressure of BJP had delayed the announcement of the Gujarat poll date. The EC defending its decision had said that “Gujarat poll schedules are not announced right now due to the existing rules on time limit (46 days) for holding elections, but it will take place before December 18, to ensure that Himachal Pradesh election results do not impact the Gujarat elections.”