BJP threatened by Priyanka campaign: Congress on EC notice

The ongoing electoral battle between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) intensified as Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra received a notice from the Election Commission (EC) for allegedly making "unverified and false statements" about Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a recent election rally in Madhya Pradesh.

Reacting to the notice, Congress MP Manickam Tagore accused the BJP of orchestrating a conspiracy by leveraging the EC against the Congress, saying the saffron party "felt threatened" by Priyanka Gandhi's campaign.

Tagore said, "The BJP is threatened by the campaign of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra... For that, they are using the Election Commission... The election commission should be fair and neutral... They should act on the complaints that the Congress party has given them...They are not acting on those subjects." He labeled the EC's notice as part of a larger conspiracy against the Congress in the state, where polling is scheduled for 17 November.

The EC sent a notice to Priyanka Gandhi following a complaint filed by BJP leaders Hardeep Singh Puri, Anil Baluni, and Om Pathak.

The BJP accused the Congress leader of making "baseless and false" claims about the privatisation of public sector undertakings (PSUs) by the Modi government, and argued that her statements had the potential to mislead the public and tarnish the image of the prime minister. In response, Priyanka was asked to explain her statements by 8 pm on Thursday.

Addressing a rally in Madhya Pradesh's Dewas district, Priyanka had alleged that PM Modi had privatised government companies, handing them over to his industrialist friends.

"Modi ji, the BHEL (Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd) from which we used to get employment and the country was moving forward, what did you do with it? To whom did you give it? Why did you give it to your industrialist friends?" she had asked.

Union minister Anurag Thakur countered her allegations, accusing the Congress of failing to address the concerns of the people in poll-bound states, and claimed that the remarks made by Priyanka were a ploy to divert attention from the Congress's shortcomings.

"Some people always make fake promises. However, they have failed to fulfill their promises after five years. As the Congress has failed to answer the people of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, they are making such remarks (against PM Modi)," he told reporters.