The Bharatiya Janta Party beat the Indian National Congress by a margin of 30 violations of Model Code of Conduct since it came to effect on March 10, 2019. The BJP and PM Narendra Modi have a total of 61 violation reports filed against them until now while the Congress has a mere 31 on their name.
The set of offences ranged from ludicrous — distribution of toffee and 'paisa' by Jaya Prada, Congress poster on a government coconut tree, Vijay Rupani's speech on how this election is between India and Pakistan — to Yogi Adityanath calling the Armed forces 'Modiji ki Sena', and NaMo TV's sudden entrance on stage.
The set of reports also included complaints against the BJP about burning effigies of Rahul Gandhi, delivering hate speeches on various occasions across the country, forcing the citizen to attend political meetings and rallies, using armed men to threaten people to vote for the BJP, campaigning in the name of Sabarimala and obviously the Modi biopic issue also came up in two complaints. Complaints were also filed against the Indian Railways for allowing an NGO, Sankalp, to distribute teacups with 'Main Hoon Chowkidar' written on it. Another complaint accused the Indian Railways of selling tickets with the PM's photo and Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna advertisement on it.
But the Congress is also not falling behind in this race. What they lost in quantity, they gained on the bizzare scale — Susheel Sharma of the Congress, allegedly, distributed liquor as part of his campaign. Rahul Gandhi himself had nine reports against him, eight of them on March 12, when he spoke at Ahmedabad. The other one was filed after his interaction with students at Stella Maris College in Chennai.
But Dr Mahesh Sharma from Uttar Pradesh stole the show with his comment that Priyanka Gandhi is 'Pappu ki Pappi'. What is not that surprising is that the Pm has not a single report directly against him even though he has repeatedly politicised the Army's action even after the Election Commission had spoken strongly against it.
