The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday asked the Election Commission to take action against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for saying that the Lok Sabha elections are akin to match-fixing in cricket.

Gandhi made the comments at the Opposition INDIA bloc’s Save Democracy rally in Delhi on Sunday.

“Have you heard of the term match-fixing, when the umpire and players are bought and captains are threatened to win a match,” Gandhi had said. “[Prime Minister] Narendra Modi along with the country’s three-four billionaires are trying to do match fixing in the upcoming elections.”

The Lok Sabha MP accused the BJP of threatening and arresting politicians, toppling governments with the help of central agencies to point out how there is no level-playing field left for the Opposition.

On Monday, a BJP delegation comprising Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and senior party leaders Arun Singh and Om Pathak met with the Election Commission.

The delegation urged the Election Commission to direct registration of a first information report against Opposition leaders involved in “defamation, slander, threats and fear mongering”.

Puri described Gandhi’s speech at the rally as “slanderous language, fear mongering and immensely insulting, baseless and inflammatory allegations made on the democratic institutions, ethos and elected representatives of the country”.

He said that the ruling party at the Centre has urged the Election Commission to take a comprehensive view of the design and patterns of the “misleading” campaign, utterances and propaganda.

The party also sought an apology from Gandhi to the country, the poll panel and Modi for making “false allegations and distortions against them”.

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