A delegation of leaders from the INDIA alliance on Friday met the Election Commission to register their protest against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s arrest and the freezing of the Congress’ bank accounts.
The leaders demanded that the poll panel intervene to stop the “targeting of Opposition leaders” by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party through the “misuse” of central investigative agencies.
BJP was resorting to “unrelenting, blatant and illegal deployment of central agencies” in a bid to stifle the Opposition, the delegation alleged.
They also expressed concern about the arrests of former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren and Bharat Rashtra Samithi leader K Kavitha, and the Central Bureau of Investigation registering a first information against Trinamool Congress Mahua Moitra.
Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharadchandra Pawar) leader Jitendra Awhad, Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury and Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien were among those who met the poll body.
“..There emerges a clear, deliberate and sinister pattern, where the ruling regime is abusing its power, and completely destroying any semblance of a level playing field for other political parties contesting the Lok Sabha elections,” read the memorandum to the Election Commission.
Singhvi, after meeting Election Commission officials on Friday, said that the concern of the Opposition leaders was about the Constitution’s basic structure, not about any individual or political party.
“When a level playing field is needed for an election and you do not let the field be leveled by misusing agencies, it impacts free and fair elections and ultimately democracy,” he said.
