NEW DELHI: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday came down heavily on Congress leader Bhai Jagtap for his comments against the Election Commission, casting doubts over the results of the recently concluded Maharashtra assembly elections. Jagtap had said that the poll body is ‘like a dog sitting outside Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bungalow.’
BJP leader Kirit Somaiya filed a written complaint against Jagtap for his controversial statement and said that such insult of a constitutional body cannot be tolerated.
“I have written to the Election Commission and also filed a complaint with Mumbai Police Commissioner. Such kind of insult, the humiliation of the Election Commission which is a constitutional body can’t be tolerated,” Somaiya said.
“Action should be initiated against Bhai Jagtap. In the last two days, Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) everybody has been targeting EVM and Election Commission because everyone is scared of the local body Mumbai Municipal Corporation election which is due in March 2025,” he added.
This comes a day after Jagtap linked ECI to a canine sitting outside the PM’s residence with all agencies being misused.
“(Election Commission toh Kutta hai) The Election Commission is like a dog, acting as a dog, sitting outside Narendra Modi ji’s bungalow. All the agencies that were created to strengthen our democracy have now become puppets, acting under the influence of Narendra Modi ji,” Jagtap said.
“These agencies, which were meant to safeguard our democracy, are unfortunately being misused. The ongoing incidents in Maharashtra and across the country show how the system is being manipulated,” he added.
Earlier, accusing the EC of tampering with voter data in the recently concluded Maharashtra Assembly elections, state Congress chief Nana Patole shot off a letter to the poll body seeking to know how voter turnout increased by 7.83 percentage points after the official polling time had ended.
Raising questions over EVMs, Patole, in a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer, said that public “sentiment” has become “extremely intense” as there is a huge “scam” in the percentage of votes in the Assembly elections.
“Doubts are being raised from many levels on the 7.83 per cent increase in votes. Looking at the vote figures announced by the Election Commission, there must have been long queues at the polling stations after 5 pm on the day of voting. In how many constituencies in the state were there long queues of voters after 5 pm?” Patole stated in his letter to the apex poll body.