'Smacks of ulterior motives’: Congress on EC's notice to Kharge, seeks time for reply
The Congress party on Thursday flagged short notice given by the Election Commission to party chief Mallikarjun Kharge over his ‘terrorist’ remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a “summary response” to the poll body’s notice to Kharge, the Congress it “smacks of ulterior motives” as there is no violation of the model code of conduct or any other laws.
The Congress party sought time to file a detailed response within one week while filing the summary reply.
“We are in receipt of two notices with the same number, F. No. 437/TNLA/2026/SS-I (MCC Complaint), both dated 22.04.2026 and signed by two different officials of the Commission,” Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said in a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
If one of the notices was withdrawn, there is no mention of it in either of the notices, he said.
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“We would like to draw your attention to the fact that one of the notices even mentions that the so-called violation of the model code of conduct was based on a complaint by Shri Derek O’Brien of the All India Trinamool Congress dated 21.04.2026. The other notice, which is also uploaded on your website, has strangely dropped his name as the complainant,” Ramesh said.
In a dig at the BJP, the letter further said that this indicates the ‘casual and routine manner in which the EC is issuing show cause notices merely on the basis of the ruling party’s complainants’ versions and without any application of mind and by giving a time of mere 24 hours to file responses’.
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Ramesh in the response letter flagged the short time given to Kharge to reply to the charges levelled against him in the notice amid busy election schedule. “You would have been aware this is certainly not sufficient time given that the Congress president is in the middle of multiple campaigns,” the letter said further.
‘Formality, not natural justice’
It almost seems the CEC is executing the notice as a formality rather than as an act in discharge of natural justice, Ramesh said.
“We seek time to file a detailed response within one week and also for a senior delegation of Congress leaders to present the same,” he said.
In the summary response, Ramesh said the comments have already been clarified subsequently by Kharge himself.
