A delegation of senior Congress leaders on Wednesday, 25 October, met Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and other representatives of the Election Commission of India (ECI) to submit a list of complaints against Home Minister Amit Shah, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, accusing them of raising "divisive" issues.
The delegation consisted of Jairam Ramesh, Salman Khurshid, Manikrao Thakre, Revanath Reddy, Uttam Kumar Reddy, and Bhatti Vikramarka.
Complaint against Amit Shah: In its complaint against Amit Shah, the party claimed that the Home Minister had said, "Bhupesh Baghel’s Government for appeasement politics and vote bank politics, lynched Chhattisgarh’s son Bhuneshwar Sahoo and got him killed" and allegedly sought votes by stating, “Bharatiya Janata Party has pledged that we will bring justice to Bhuvneshwar Sahoo’s killers and in his honour, we are fielding his father Shri. Ishwar Sahoo as a candidate in the elections.”
The Congress claimed that the comments were in "blatant" violation of the Indian Penal Code and the Representation of People Act, 1951.
Complaint against Himanta Biswa Sarma: In their complaint against Sarma, the party claimed that the former, while campaigning against Congress leader Mohd Akbar, had said, "If one Akbar comes to some place, he calls 100 Akbars. So, send him off as soon as possible, otherwise the land of Mata Kaushalya will get defiled."
The party claimed that Sarma had also alleged that the Bhupesh Baghel-led Chhattisgarh government was encouraging tribals to convert to a different religion on a "daily basis" and alleged that the statements were made with the intention of "inciting sections of society against one another".
The Congress also called for the disqualification of BJP candidate Govind Singh Rajput from contesting the Madhya Pradesh elections for allegedly claiming that he would pay Rs 25 lakh to he prabharis of booths where the maximum number of votes would be cast for the BJP.
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