West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said her party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), will lodge a complaint with the Election Commission if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meditation in Kanyakumari is televised in alleged violation of the Election Code of Conduct (MCC).
She also quipped to the Prime Minister, questioning whether he needed cameras to meditate.
PM Modi is scheduled to meditate at the Rock Memorial, a monument built in memory of Swami Vivekananda, in Kanyakumari, Kerala, after the climax of the Lok Sabha election campaign on May 30.
“We will file a complaint. He can meditate but he cannot broadcast it on television,” she said, alleging this is a violation of the MCC.
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“Do I have to have a camera to meditate?” she asked, adding that this is how campaigners do it during the quiet period between the end of campaigning and voting day.
Indian National Congress Party leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi also alleged that PM Modi’s May 30 meditation was in violation of the MCC, adding that his party had filed a complaint about it.
“The Prime Minister will start meditating from May 30 evening but we are protesting against it. Everyone knows that the silence period will begin from May 30, so his declaration is a violation of the MCC. The Prime Minister can start meditating after 24-48 hours, i.e. from June 1 evening. Otherwise, if the Prime Minister wants to meditate from May 30, the ECI must ensure that this is not broadcast on television or in print media,” Indian National Congress Party leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi said after leading a party delegation to meet the ECI.
According to a senior BJP leader, PM Modi will meditate from the evening of May 30 to the evening of June 1 at the Dhyana Mandapam, the spot where Vivekananda is believed to have had a divine vision of ‘Bharat Mata’.
Addressing an election rally at the same place where the Prime Minister addressed a rally in support of the BJP candidate in Jadavpur constituency on Tuesday, Mamata asserted that the Prime Minister will meditate for 48 hours before the final phase of voting in any election.
“The Prime Minister had practised a similar meditation in the Kedarnath caves after the 2019 election campaign. If they (BJP) return to power this time, there will be no political parties, no elections, no independence, no religion, no humanity and no culture,” she said, according to news agency PTI.
The TMC supremo sought to rubbish PM Modi’s claim that the BJP would perform best in Bengal in this election, asserting, “This means they have lost. They will get rosogolla (zero) in Bengal.”
She said the TMC would support the opposition Indian Alliance to form government in Delhi and urged people not to vote for the CPI(M) or the Indian National Congress in Bengal as “it would help the BJP”.
Accusing the Mamata Banerjee government of appeasement, PM Modi said at an election rally in Kakdwip earlier in the day that “reservations have been looted in West Bengal and fake OBC certificates have been issued to Muslims.”
Banerjee also alleged that the TMC was misleading Muslims by spreading false information about court verdicts. Accusing the BJP of launching a smear campaign against the TMC, she alleged that the party had to fight the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Income Tax Department (IT).
