Congress MP Manickam Tagore on Wednesday alleged the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of using the Election Commission (EC) against his party as the saffron party is ‘threatened by the campaign’ of Priyanka Gandhi. This comes after the election body on Tuesday served a show-cause notice to the Congress general secretary on charges of making ‘unverified and false statements’ regarding Prime Minister Narendra Modi during an election rally.

“The BJP is threatened by the campaign of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra…For that, they are using the Election Commission… The election commission should be fair and neutral… They should act on the complaints that the Congress party has given them… They are not acting on those subjects,” he told ANI, adding that it’s a part of a ‘conspiracy’ against his party in the poll-bound states.

Why was Priyanka Gandhi served a show-cause notice?

The EC took action on a complaint filed by a Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Hardeep Singh Puri, Anil Baluni and Om Pathak. According to the senior BJP leaders, Priyanka Gandhi made ‘baseless and false’ claim that the Narendra Modi government had privatised public sector undertakings (PSUs).

“It has been alleged that while addressing a public rally at Sanwer Assembly Constituency in Madhya Pradesh, you have made unverified and false statements in respect of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi that have the potential to mislead the public and tarnish the image of the Prime Minister,” the poll body said.

She was asked to explain her statement by 8 pm on Thursday.

What did Priyanka Gandhi say against PM Modi?

While addressing a rally in Madhya Pradesh’s Dewas district, Priyanka Gandhi alleged that PM Modi had handed over government companies to private players, who she called his industrialist friends. “Modi ji, the BHEL from which we used to get employment and the country was moving forward, what did you do with this? To whom did you give it? Why did you give this to your industrialist friends?”

Anurag Thakur said Congress ‘failed to answer people’

Union minister Anurag Thakur alleged that remarks made by the senior Congress leader is a way to evade questions of people in poll-bound states.

“Some people always make fake promises. However, they have failed to fulfil their promises after five years. As Congress has failed to answer the people of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, they are making such remarks (against PM Modi),” he told reporters.