Election Commission Has Authorised PM Narendra Modi to Announce Gujarat Poll Dates, Says Chidambaram

New Delhi: Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fifth visit to Gujarat in a little over a month, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said that the Election Commission is waiting for the PM to announce the Gujarat poll dates in his rally.

In a tweet on Friday morning, the former finance minister said the poll panel will be recalled from its “extended holiday” after the Gujarat government has announced all concessions and freebies ahead of the election.

He was referring to Modi’s visit to the state scheduled for Sunday, when he is expected to inaugurate and lay foundation of several development projects worth Rs 1,140 crore of the Vadodara Municipal Corporation.

“EC has authorised PM to announce date of Gujarat elections at his last rally (and kindly keep EC informed),” he wrote on Twitter.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi has also taken several digs at the PM for the delay in announcement, alleging that the government is pressuring the EC.

Before Modi’s last visit to the state on October 16, he had predicted a rain of rhetoric and tagged a headline that read: “As Gujarat waits for poll date, state gets projects worth nearly Rs 12,500 crores”.

The Congress has alleged that if the EC had announced assembly elections in Gujarat along with those in Himachal Pradesh, the model code of conduct would have come into force with immediate effect, leaving no opportunity for the BJP to announce any sops for voters in Gujarat.

The JD(U), an ally of the ruling BJP, has also asked the Election Commission for "credible answers" to why it had not announced the dates. The agency must not only be impartial but also seen to be so, the party’s general secretary and spokesperson Pavan Varma said.

The BJP, however, has rubbished the charges and said the opposition should concentrate on a “proper” fight.

“Let us fight properly in Gujarat if you have any issues. By miscellaneous ways the question is being raised on Election Commission, CAG and even the Supreme Court. These uncalled for reflections upon constitutional bodies are without any basis," Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.