INDIA bloc leaders reach out to EC, highlight ‘misuse’ of Central agencies

A day after the arrest of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate in the excise policy case, a delegation of INDIA bloc leaders on March 22 called on the Election Commission (EC) to allege “unrelenting, blatant and illegal deployment of Central Agencies” by the ruling BJP to target the Opposition parties.

A day after the arrest of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal by the Enforcement Directorate in the excise policy case, a delegation of INDIA bloc leaders on March 22 called on the Election Commission (EC) to allege “unrelenting, blatant and illegal deployment of Central Agencies” by the ruling BJP to target the Opposition parties.

The delegation presented a memorandum in which the INDIA bloc leaders submitted a list of 10 instances of agencies going after the Opposition parties since January and the absence of a level playing field in the elections.

The delegation included Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal, his colleague Abhishek Singhvi, Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) Derek O’brien and Nadimul Haque, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury among others.

AAP leaders Sandeep Pathak and Pankaj Gupta, Nationalist Congress Party (Sharad Pawar) leader Jitendra Awhad, DMK’s P. Wilson and Javed Ali of the Samajwadi Party were also part of the delegation.

While the JMM, RJD and Shiv Sena (UBT) could not send any representatives, the Opposition leaders said all parties supported the memorandum.

This is the first time that the TMC has shared a common platform with the Congress after seat-sharing didn’t fructify and the party decided to go alone in West Bengal.

“We pointed out this is not a normal complaint, it is a larger issue of affecting, impairing, undermining, and sabotaging the basic structure of the Constitution,” Mr. Singhvi said.