The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday accused the United Progressive Alliance government of politicising the Election Commission, saying the reported differences in the poll body on the issue of notice to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi were an example of its "partisan" approach.
"The Congress-led UPA government is committed towards one objective -- to destroy each and every Constitutional authority in the country for its own narrow political gain," BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar told reporters in New Delhi.
"Media reports of rumblings in the Election Commission on the issue of notice to Sonia Gandhi have only reconfirmed our worst apprehension that it might be under partisan influence from within. On the matter of issuing notices to her, the split has become wide open," he said.
He said the "partisan" approach of the EC had become evident when it made "undue haste" in the arranging of bypoll for re-election of Sonia and the "tardiness and reluctance" displayed in the byelection for BJP's B C Khanduri to continue in office as chief minister of Uttarakhand.
Javadekar said the "politicisation" of the EC became more apparent in the 'Maut ka Saudagar' controversy.
"Double standards were witnessed initially in the serving of notices and the subsequent differentiated language used in the expression of displeasure to the concerned leaders," he said.
"The EC should be politically detached and equi-distanced from all political parties. If the practice of appointing partisan persons as members of the EC gets established as a precedent, it will provide a temptation to future governments to pack it with their own team of servile sycophants," he said.