EC created ‘uneven playing field’ in Karnataka: Congress

NEW DELHI: Citing 11 specific instances when top BJP leaders, including the Prime Minister and the home minister, delivered “hate speeches” and made “defamatory” comments against the Congress brass in poll-bound Karnataka, and where the EC took no action, Congress, in a sharply-worded 15-page response to the EC’s showcause notice, alleged that the poll body had created an “uneven playing field” and violated Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution by showing “arbitrariness in administrative action” and handling complaints from opposition parties.

The commission had served a show cause notice on Karnataka PCC president D K Shivakumar for Congress’s political advertisement claiming a “40% commission (BJP) sarkara” in Karnataka and asked it to respond, with proof, in 24 hours.

In response, senior advocate and Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Singhvi took on the poll body, accusing it of acting selectively against the opposition and saying that it contributed “through action and inaction, to the emergence of an uneven playing field” in Karnataka. Congress also attached a list of 11 examples where PM Modi, Amit Shah, J P Nadda and Yogi Adityanath, among others, delivered allegedly false speeches.