“Violation of Model Code of Conduct”: Congress leader Salman Khurshid on ED raids in poll-bound states

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India] : Senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Thursday urged the Election Commission of India to “take seriously” the Enforcement Directorate raids on the opposition leaders during the election season with five states undergo polls this month.

The former Union Minister argued that when the Model Code of Conduct kicks in with the announcement of poll dates, the government would want to do a lot of things.

On the ED raids on Opposition leaders, the veteran Congress leader said, “There is something called a (Model)Code of Conduct… There’s also a spirit to the code of conduct. The actual substance of the code of conduct is about the level playing field. There are many things that the government would want to do… But when the code of conduct kicks in, you put an end to all of that…”.

Terming the ED raids a violation of the spirit of the Model Code of Conduct, he said, “Conducting raids on the candidates at this time, when the election process is on, is very anti-democratic. It’s a violation of the spirit of the code of conduct. The Election Commission should take this very seriously…,” he said.

Income Tax officials today conducted raids on the residence of Congress leader Ponguleti Srinivas Reddy, in Telangana’s Khammam district, authorities said.

Reddy is contesting the November 30 polls from the Palair constituency in Khammam district.

A former member of the Lok Sabha, Reddy had recently joined Congress from BRS.

While the polling for the 40-member Mizoram Assembly and the first phase of polling for the Chhattisgarh Assembly concluded on Tuesday, the elections will be held in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (second phase) on November 17, Rajasthan on November 25 and Telangana on November 30.

The counting of votes will take place on December 3 in all the states.

In the previous Assembly election in the state in 2018, the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), previously known as Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), won 88 of the 119 seats, hogging 47.4 per cent of the total vote share. The Congress came in a distant second with just 19 seats.