Gogoi defies EC, alleges '100 percent bias'

District Electoral Officer lodges FIR against Chief Minister

By Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, April 11: Despite objections from election officials, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today held a press conference even as he accused the Election Commission of "100 per cent bias".

As jourlists gathered for the press conference at a city hotel this morning, magistrate Chinmoy th reached the place and told them that holding of a press conference when polling is on is violation of the model code of conduct.

A defiant Gogoi, however, went ahead with the press conference and dared the election official to arrest him.

"I am not campaigning. If someone is making allegations against me, I will have to counter them," he said at the press conference held in presence of the election officials.

"They can arrest me if I have violated the rules. How can they charge me without knowing what I will say? Let them serve me a notice," an angry CM said.

Gogoi accused Election Commission officials of bias, saying they were harassing Congress leaders across the State.

He condemned an incident on Sunday when the residence of Congress leader and former minister Goutam Bora at Dhing was allegedly searched by EC officials.

Gogoi said that while the poll panel did not take any action for violation of code of conduct by BJP leaders like Himanta Biswa Sarma who organized a bike rally yesterday, it raided the houses of Congress leaders like Rakibul Hussain and Goutam Bora without any reason.

Meanwhile, election officials here said a report has been sent to the Election Commission of India on the incident. "The ECI will decide what action will be taken," they said.

Late in the night, the District Electoral Officer lodged an FIR with the police against Tarun Gogoi following instructions from the ECI.

Reacting to the incident, BJP president Sarbanda Sonowal said the CM has failed in his duty.

"Occupying a constitutiol post, he should have set an example for the people. But his behavior is unfortute. People have condemned it. The Congress has realized that it has been discarded in the second phase as well," he said.

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