EC demands evidence from Congress on Shah's alleged calls to MPs

Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Pawan Khera and Supriya Shrinate at a press conference. Photo/PTI

The Election Commission (EC) on Sunday sought factual information from Congress leader Jairam Ramesh over his claim that Home Minister Amit Shah summoned 150 district magistrates and collectors before the counting of votes on 4 June for the Lok Sabha elections. In a letter to Ramesh, the probe panel asked him to share the details of his claim by 7 pm on Sunday.

The EC referred to its June 1 message, in which the Congress general secretary had claimed that “the outgoing Home Minister has summoned DMs/Collectors. So far, he has spoken to 150 of them them. This is blatant and brazen intimidation, showing how desperate the BJP is….”The process of counting votes is a sacred duty incumbent on every returning officer and such public statements” tend to put. an element of doubt and therefore deserve to be addressed in wider public interest,” the EC told Ramesh.

He also told the Congress leader that when the model code of conduct is in force, all officers are under the purported delegation of the commission and report directly to the poll watchdog for any instructions. “However, no DM has reported any undue influence as you allege…,” the EC letter to Ramesh said.

This story comes from a third-party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility for its reliability, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the exclusive right to edit, delete or delete (without notice) the content at its absolute discretion for any reason.