Congress takes a dig at the Election Commission of India

Ahead of the announcement of the Assembly election schedule by the Election Commission of India (ECI), the Congress on Sunday (March 15, 2026) took a swipe at the poll body, referring the the Model Code of Conduct or MCC as “Modi’s Code of Campaigning”, which, the party said, would be “full of defamation, abuses, intimidation, fear-mongering, and spreading the virus of lies”.

Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, took to the social media platform X. “The Election Commission will announce the schedule for the 2026 Assembly elections at 4 p.m. 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,” Mr. Ramesh said, adding, “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,” Mr. Ramesh said.

The Congress frequently uses the term “G2” to take swipes at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, both of whom are from Gujarat.

The MCC is a set of conventions agreed upon by all stakeholders during the elections. Its objective is to keep campaigning, polling and counting orderly, clean and peaceful, and check any abuse of state machinery and finances by the party in power.