'Be more careful': EC tells Rahul Gandhi for remarks against PM Modi, issues advisory

New Delhi: Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, the Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi "to be more careful and cautious" while making comments in public in the future and adhere to the advisory it recently issued for the star campaigners and candidates to follow during campaigning.

The EC has not yet announced the schedule of the Lok Sabha elections and hence the Model Code of Conduct has not yet come into effect.

The commission, however, issued the advisory to Rahul Gandhi in connection with a comment the Congress’s Lok Sabha member from Kerala had made targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in November 2023 while campaigning for the party’s candidates, who had contested the state assembly elections in Rajasthan.

The Delhi High Court had on December 21 asked the EC to act against Rahul Gandhi “in accordance with the law”. The court had observed that the comments made by him had not been in good taste.

Gandhi had made the comment while speaking at a rally in Barmer in Rajasthan. Apart from PM Modi, he had allegedly targeted industrialist Gautam Adani too.

“The pickpocket never comes alone, there are three people. One comes from the front, one from the back, and one from the distance... Prime Minister Narendra Modi's job is to divert your attention. He comes on TV from the front and distracts the public by raising topics of Hindu-Muslim, demonetization, and GST. Meanwhile, Adani comes from behind and takes the money,” said the scion of the first family of the Congress.

The EC, acting on a complaint lodged by the BJP, had on November 23 issued a notice to Gandhi for his comments in Barmer. It issued the advisory to Gandhi on Wednesday, thus implementing the order of the Delhi High Court.

The commission also asked Gandhi, likely to be a star campaigner of his party in the LS elections, to take into note its March 1 advisory for all parties for strict adherence to the Model Code of Conduct while campaigning for the forthcoming parliamentary polls as well the assembly polls in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha.

The EC is preparing to announce the schedule of the polling to elect the 543 members of the Lok Sabha within a few weeks. The poll panel had announced the schedule of the Lok Sabha elections on March 5 in 2014 and on March 10 in 2019.

The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) will come into effect immediately after the declaration of the schedule of the parliamentary polls by the EC.