The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the Congress of repeatedly flouting the Model Code of Conduct and complained to the Election Commission over party vice president Rahul Gandhi's remarks that linked the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.
Seeking derecognition of the Congress and demanding action against Rahul, the BJP, in its complaint, accused the Gandhi scion and his party with being ``habitual offenders'' of the poll code.
``In his rally in Bhiwandi in Thane, Maharashtra on March 6, Gandhi made certain false and baseless allegations against the members of BJP and RSS and also made communal utterances, inciting communal feelings amongst people of various communities,'' states the complaint submitted to the Chief Election Commission VS Sampath by BJP vice president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and former party MP Satya Pal Jain.
Naqvi said the entire tone and tenor of Rahul's speech was to incite the feelings of the people and create hatred towards BJP as well as RSS.
He described the statements of Rahul as not only being ``false, disgraceful, condemnable, baseless'' but also causing ``an utter violation of the Model Code of Conduct as well as established democratic practices.''
Naqvi recalled that the Election Commission, in its order dated 13 November 2013, had coveyed its displeasure to Rahul and advised him to be more circumspect in his public utterances during election campaigns. The EC observation had come on a complaint against the Congress and Rahul, by the BJP, during the assembly elections in five States in November-December 2013.
Meanwhile, a far-right wing Indian party yesterday publicly threw its support behind opposition Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi for prime minister ahead of next month's general elections.
The firebrand head of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), Raj Thackeray, said he would back Modi, while announcing that his party would also field a handful of candidates for the elections.
The MNS, a rival offshoot of the hardline right-wing Shiv Sena, has a record of inciting riots and other violence mainly in its opposition of migrants in western Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital.