CPI(M) Files Complaint with Election Commission; Calls Modi's Address to Nation a Violation of Model Code of Conduct

New Delhi: The CPI(M) has filed a formal complaint with the Election Commission of India, demanding action against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his address to the nation on Saturday, which the party has termed a brazen violation of the Model Code of Conduct with assembly elections in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal imminent.

CPI(M) General Secretary M A Baby, in the complaint, alleged that the Prime Minister misused Doordarshan — a public broadcaster — to deliver a partisan political message, and that deploying a state-owned broadcast platform in this manner during an election period constitutes a clear breach of the Model Code of Conduct.

The party said Modi's address was driven not by any national interest but by the need to conceal the embarrassment of his government's constitutional amendment bid collapsing in Parliament. After the unilateral delimitation move was defeated in the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister levelled baseless accusations against the opposition — falsely claiming they had sabotaged women's reservation — in what the CPI(M) characterised as a desperate attempt to shift the narrative and score electoral points ahead of the upcoming assembly polls in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

The complaint specifically notes that the address was targeted at Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, both of which are heading to assembly elections, making the misuse of a national public broadcaster for such a purpose all the more egregious. The party has urged the Election Commission to take immediate and exemplary action against the violation.