De-recognize Congress, says BJP

The BJP on Sunday urged the Election Commission to de-recognize the Congress after accusing it of repeatedly flouting the model code of conduct ahead of Lok Sabha polls.

In a letter to the poll panel, the Bharatiya Janata Party said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and his party have been “repeatedly violating” the code.

It sought the “immediate withdrawal of the recognition of the Indian National Congress as a national party”.

The BJP letter mentioned Gandhi’s comments linking the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), to which the BJP is affiliated, to Mahatma Gandhi’s 1948 assassination and some other controversial comments.

”(Rahul) Gandhi made certain false and baseless allegations against the members of the BJP and RSS and also made communal utterances, inciting communal feelings amongst people of various communities,” said the letter signed by party leaders Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Satya Pal Jain.

”It is an attempt to mislead the people of the country by character assassination of the BJP, RSS and its members, based on completely false and baseless allegations and propaganda,” the letter said.

The RSS on Friday filed a complaint with the Election Commission against Gandhi for his remarks on Mahatma Gandhi’s killing made at Thane in Maharashtra.