**EDS: TO GO WITH STORY** New Delhi: The signboard of ‘Nirvachan Sadan’ outside the Election Commission of India (ECI) building, in New Delhi, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. (PTI Photo/Kamal Kishore) (PTI02_29_2024_000003A)
| Photo Credit: PTI

The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) on April 29 sought a week’s time to respond to the Election Commission’s (EC) notice issued to party president J.P. Nadda on complaints against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while the Congress has sought 14 more days on a similar plaint against Rahul Gandhi.

Both parties were supposed to submit their responses by 11 a.m. on Monday.

EC sources said that the Congress had initially sought time till 5 p.m. on Monday but later asked for 14 more days.

Also read | EC ‘super, super cautious’ when it comes to complaints against PM: Congress

On Thursday, the EC had for the first time issued a notice for violation of the Model Code of Conduct by Prime Minister Modi. However, taking a circuitous route, the notice was sent to Mr. Nadda and not to Mr. Modi directly.

The notice failed to even mention the Prime Minister by name but the complaints attached along with it were those of the Congress, CPI(M) etc., against Mr. Modi’s “malicious election speech delivered at Banswara (Rajasthan)”.

A similar notice issued to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge contained complaints against him and Mr. Gandhi. This notice, too, did not name any of the leaders.

‘Case-by-case basis’

The EC issuing the notices to the respective party presidents instead of the leaders concerned was considered unprecedented. In its notice to the BJP, the EC asked Mr. Nadda to get all the star campaigners of the party to “set high standards of political discourse and observe provisions of model code of conduct in letter and spirit”.

The commission said it had decided that while individual star campaigners would continue to remain responsible for the speeches they made, the Commission would address party chiefs “on a case-to-case basis”.

The poll panel also held that campaign speeches made by those holding high positions had more serious consequences.

In the notice to Mr. Kharge, the EC included complaints filed by the BJP, alleging that he and Mr. Gandhi had violated the MCC.

The BJP had claimed that during a speech in Kottayam on April 18, Mr. Gandhi made “false allegations” against the Prime Minister, stating that he had advocated for “one nation, one language, and one religion”. The notice also said that Mr. Kharge, in comments made to a publication, had said that President Droupadi Murmu was not invited to the Ram Temple consecration ceremony because she was a member of the Scheduled Tribe.