EC working under pressure from govt, alleges Sena

In a vitriolic attack on the BJP over the alleged leak of Karnataka poll dates, the Shiv Sena on Thursday said the pillars of democracy were being “desecrated”.

It also accused the Election Commission (EC) of working under pressure from the government, and sought to know if the poll panel had decided to function as per the “suitability of the BJP”.

The Sena’s remarks come in the wake of the controversy over a tweet by the BJP’s IT cell chief announcing the Karnataka Assembly poll date before an official declaration by the EC.

“It was believed that the Election Commission would be impartial, however, it is not so, (this) has been proved in the run up to the Karnataka polls,” it said.

“The EC is working under pressure from the government, is what the opposition claims and it has been proven true by the BJP,” the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece ‘Saamana’.

Ahead of the official announcement of Karnataka poll dates on Tuesday by Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat, the BJP IT cell chief, Amit Malviya, had tweeted that voting will be held on May 12 and the counting will take place on May 18.

He was correct about the day of voting, but got counting date wrong. The counting will take place on May 15.

The Sena said, “Somebody called Amit Malviya from the BJP’s IT cell released the election date even before the EC could announce it.”

“Is it that the information was leaked through somebody or is it that EC has decided to work as per the suitability of BJP?” the Uddhav Thackeray-led party asked.

The former heads of the EC are now being given Rajya Sabha tickets, made ministers, and allotted gubernatorial posts and it was not a sign of them being impartial, the Sena said.

Citing the demonetisation decision, it said the government’s move to scrap the high value currency notes was a complete failure, and that a report on it was published in a newspaper in Gujarat even before the decision was actually announced.