Telugu Desam Party national president and Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has said that his fight was not against the Election Commission of India (ECI) but against its “determined unwillingness” to implement the model code of conduct (MCC) in letter and spirit.
The model code has never been invoked against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah. The content of speeches of Mr. Modi breached the poll code. Whether it is Mr. Modi’s polarising majority and minority speech in Wardha on April 1 or his invocation of Pulwama and Balakot issues in the Latur and Chitradurga rallies on April 9, Mr. Naidu said in a statement on Friday.
“Our fight with the ECI is for applying the same yardstick for all political parties and stop politically motivated vindictive I-T and ED raids at the behest of Mr. Modi on Opposition leaders,” he said.
The Election Commission responds within hours when the BJP or its friendly parties such as the YSRCP lodge a complaint, but not to the genuine pleas by the other parties that oppose Mr. Modi. In comparison, it was during the tenure of T.N. Seshan the 10th CEC, who worked from 1990 to 1996, that the model code began to be strictly applied to all political parties and politicians without fear or favour.
J.M. Lyngdoh, then Chief Election Commissioner, refused to conduct elections by October 2002 as demanded by Mr. Modi, who was Chief Minister of Gujarat then. Mr. Lyngdoh objectively assessed the ground situation after he went to Gujarat with full Election Commission team and expressed dissatisfaction with the Gujarat government’s handling of the communal crisis , Mr. Naidu recalled.