The Election Commission (EC) on Saturday refused to make any comment on the remarks made by Congress over the change of Press conference timing from 12.30 pm to 3 pm by the poll body to announce Assembly election dates. Referring to remarks made by Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala, Chief Election Commissioner OP Rawat said that politicians are political creatures, therefore, it is in their nature to see politics in everything. He said that the commission would not like to comment on it. However, he started the presser with an apology for the confusion over the timing of the presser.
He said that the commission had to take into account certain last minute considerations, including last-minute assessment of timeline for publication of Telangana , Pending HC direction that Telangana rolls should be shown to it first and , the decision on by-poll dates in Karnataka, which remains under the threat of poor weather condition
Earlier, Surjewala accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of "putting pressure" on the Election Commission (EC) to delay its Press conference to announce poll dates in five States as he was scheduled to address a rally in Rajasthan. "The EC's explanation for the delay is preposterous. Prime minister Narendra Modi is guilty of pressuring the EC to delay its press conference as he was scheduled to address a rally. The EC was made to wait for Modi's rally," Surjewala told reporters in Kolkata.
However, Surjewala was not impressed with the CEC's reply. He also said that the EC had done a similar thing while announcing poll dates for Gujarat last year.
"In Gujarat, BJP IT cell tweeted the election dates even before ECI. ECI delinked Gujarat elections from Himachal to enable PM Modi to make a slew of announcements. ECI again deferred PC to enable PM Modi to do the same in Rajasthan. Is BJP the Super EC?," Surjewala later said in a tweet.
Interestingly, while criticizing the poll panel, the Congress leaders have forgotten that Rahul Gandhi rally was also scheduled at Morena, MP at 1 pm on Saturday.
