Rahul Gandhi alleged that the BJP is putting pressure on all the major institutions.
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi today accused the Election Commission of being "completely biased" against the opposition, a day after the poll body gave clean chits to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah over allegations of poll code violations. The Election Commission gave clean chits despite dissension from one of the election commissioners in the "full Election Commission" headed by Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora.
"When it comes to issues of the BJP, the EC is absolutely on the straight line, when it comes to the opposition's issues, it is completely biased," Mr Gandhi said at a press conference in New Delhi today.
The Congress President also alleged that the ruling BJP and its ideological mentor, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is putting pressure on all the major institutions, including the Election Commission.
"This is evident everywhere -- SC, EC, Planning Commission, RBI. That is their approach. We do not expect that the EC will not be affected by that pressure," Mr Gandhi said.
The recent clean chits by the poll body has raised questions over its impartiality.
NDTV has learnt that on five occasions, one of the three commissioners dissented with the majority view to let PM Modi and Amit Shah off the hook for their comments.
The five rulings where dissent was expressed included two separate instances where the Prime Minister sought votes in the name of the soldiers killed in the Pulwama terror attacks, in speeches in Maharastra and Karnataka and two separate instances where the Prime Minister questioned Rahul Gandhi's selection of the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat as pandering to minorities, in speeches in Maharashtra.
Decision on Amit Shah's comments in Nagpur, also on Wayanad, where he said, "Rahul Gandhi is contesting in such a place where it is impossible to say when a procession is taken out, whether it is a procession in India or Pakistan," was also not unanimous, NDTV has learnt.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said the dissenting view showed "the fear of Modi-Shah" is finally weakening.
The "full commission", which takes such decisions, comprises Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and fellow election commissioners Ashok Lavasa and Sushil Chandra.