'MCC-Modi's Code of Campaigning': Cong's dig at EC

New Delhi: Ahead of the assembly polls schedule announcement by the Election Commission, the Congress on Sunday took a swipe, saying since 2014 the MCC has come to stand for "Modi's Code of Campaigning which will be full of defamation, abuses, intimidation, fear-mongering, and spreading the virus of lies."

The opposition party also claimed that the poll schedule announcement "would have been given the go-ahead by the G2, since G1 would have completed this round of inaugurations, ribbon-cuttings, flag-offs, and launches".

The Congress frequently uses the term 'G2' to take swipes at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, who are both from Gujarat.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said, "The Election Commission will announce the schedule for the 2026 assembly elections at 4 PM today. It would have been given the go-ahead by the G2, since G1 would have completed this round of inaugurations, ribbon-cuttings, flag-offs, and launches." "The Election Commission's Model Code of Conduct (MCC) will soon come into effect. But since 2014 this has come to stand for Modi's Code of Campaigning which will be full of defamation, abuses, intimidation, fear-mongering, and spreading the virus of lies," Ramesh said.

The MCC is a set of conventions agreed upon by all stakeholders during the elections. Its objective is to keep campaigning, polling and counting orderly, clean and peaceful and check any abuse of state machinery and finances by the party in power.

The Election Commission will announce dates for assembly polls in Assam, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal and Puducherry on Sunday evening.

The terms of these legislative assemblies are ending on different dates in May and June.

Final electoral rolls of the four states and the Union territory of Puducherry have been published as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voters' list.