PM Modi pressured EC to delay announcement of election dates: Congress

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala on Saturday accused the Election Commission of deliberately delaying its scheduled press conference to announce poll dates for five states under pressure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and accused the BJP of acting as "super EC".

The EC was supposed to hold a press conference at 12.30 pm in Delhi on Saturday to announce the assembly poll dates in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana, but rescheduled the announcement to 3 pm.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi is guilty of pressuring the EC to delay its press conference as he was scheduled to address a rally in Rajasthan's Ajmer at 1 pm. The EC was made to wait for Modi's rally," Surjewala said at the state Congress office here.

"National BJP IT Cell Head tweeted election dates of Knt. even before ECI. ECI delinked Gujarat elections from Himachal to enable PM Modi to make a slew of announcements. ECI again deferred PC to enable PM Modi to do the same in Rajasthan. BJP the Super EC?" he tweeted later.

The Election Commission has, however, claimed that the announcement was delayed due to official work.

Earlier in the day, the Congress leader took to social media to question the independence of the Election Commission after it changed the timing of the press conference to announce the schedule of polls in the five states.

"Three facts -- draw your own conclusions. ECI announces a PC at 12.30 today (Saturday) to announce election dates to the 5 states. PM Modi is addressing a rally in Ajmer, Rajasthan at 1 p.m. today. ECI suddenly changes the time of announcement and PC to 3 p.m. Independence of ECI?" he had tweeted.

--IANS

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