Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: The Election Commission will hold a press conference at 4 pm to announce the schedule for the general elections to the legislative assemblies of Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The terms of these assemblies are set to end on different dates in May and June.Ahead of the announcement, opposition leaders targeted the poll body and questioned its neutrality while reacting to the upcoming declaration of election dates.Congress leader Jairam Ramesh took a swipe at the Model Code of Conduct and the poll panel saying that the MCC has come to stand for “Modi’s Code of Campaigning”.In a post on X party’s general secretary in charge of communications wrote, “The Election Commission will announce the schedule for the 2026 assembly elections at 4 PM today. It would have been given the go-ahead by the G2, since G1 would have completed this round of inaugurations, ribbon-cuttings, flag-offs, and launches.“The Election Commission’s Model Code of Conduct (MCC) will soon come into effect. But since 2014 this has come to stand for Modi’s Code of Campaigning – which will be full of defamation, abuses, intimidation, fear-mongering, and spreading the virus of lies,” he added.The Congress frequently uses the term “G2” to take swipes at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah. The Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is a set of guidelines agreed upon by political parties to regulate campaigning during elections and ensure that polling, campaigning and counting are conducted in a free, fair and transparent manner.Meanwhile, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Manoj Kumar Jha also urged the poll panel to ensure impartiality.“I just want to say that the Election Commissioner should look at their predecessors and conduct themselves accordingly. An independent and unbiased election is not just something written on paper,” he said.He said that the announcement of election dates appeared predictable based on recent political rallies.“The announcement of election dates is a fairly natural process; we had already got an indication from the way the Prime Minister’s rallies were being held. The Election Commission does not appear to be playing an impartial role. We keep urging them to show impartiality. I feel that in the future, children may read in books: ‘Once upon a time there used to be an Election Commission which conducted free and fair elections, once upon a time, not now.’”Reacting to the upcoming polls in West Bengal, Firhad Hakim, the mayor of Kolkata and a leader of the Trinamool Congress, said elections come and go but his party remains connected to people throughout the year.“Elections come and go. We stay with the people all year round. If someone new shows up for the election, will people trust them? In their pain and suffering, Trinamool Congress was with them,” Hakim said.Reacting to the announcement, Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said that the party had been waiting for the announcement for a long time.“We welcome it. We’ve been waiting for this for a very long time. Actually, it should have been announced much earlier… I would say to the Election Commission that there are already so many doubts about you, but at least don’t do things so blatantly. The Prime Minister keeps making announcements left and right, and then suddenly it occurs to you to announce the dates,” he said. Final electoral rolls of the four states and the Union territory of Puducherry have already been published as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of the voters’ list.
