'PM's Kanyakumari retreat violates poll code': Congress moves Election Commission against Modi

On Thursday, PM Narendra Modi will reach Kanyakumari for a three-day meditation break ahead of the Lok Sabha election results.

A day before Prime Minister Narendra Modi retreats to Kanyakumari on a three-day meditation break, the Congress on Wednesday approached the Election Commission, saying that the PM's move constitutes a “violation” of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC).

“We told the Election Commission that during the silence period of 48 hours, no one should be allowed to campaign, directly or indirectly,” senior Congress leader told Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters after meeting Election Commission officials at the poll body's office in Delhi.

Singhvi, however, clarified that the grand old party is not against “whatever any leader may do.”

“The PM's meditation, on the other hand, will be a violation of the Model Code as the silence period would be from 7am on May 30 till June 1,” he added.

The retreat is a “tactic” by the Prime Minister to either keep campaigning or to "keep himself in the headlines," Singhvi remarked.

“We have asked the Election Commission that the PM should postpone his ‘maun vrat’ (vow of silence) by 24-48 hours to the evening of June 1. But if he insists on beginning this tomorrow, the media should be directed not to telecast it,” the senior Supreme Court advocate stated.

In 2019, too, Prime Minister Modi had visited the Badrinath and Kedarnath shrines ahead of the declaration of results of that year's Lok Sabha elections, when he got elected to serve a second consecutive term.

The senior BJP leader and former Gujarat chief minister is seeking a hattrick of wins from Varanasi, from where he contested his maiden Lok Sabha election in 2014. The constituency in Uttar Pradesh will vote in the seventh and final phase on Saturday. The Lok Sabha election results are due on June 4.

Campaigning for the seventh phase will end at 5pm on Thursday.