Patna:

The Bihar Chief Electoral Officer on Sunday dismissed charges that checking of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s helicopter on Saturday was an “instance of targeting the opposition”, asserting it was a “routine procedure” and those of Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP chief J P Nadda were also searched.

Mr Kharge had addressed a couple of election rallies in the state on Saturday and his helicopter was checked by authorities at Samastipur, the venue of his first public meeting, triggering protests from his party and alliance partners.

The Bihar CEO, in a social media post, said, “The allegation that only the helicopter of a leader of one national party was checked is baseless.” In the post, the CEO did not mention Mr Kharge or Congress by name but pointed out that helicopters of Mr Shah and Mr Nadda were similarly checked when they were in Bihar last month.

“The checking of helicopters during elections follows the SOP laid down by the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS). The helicopters of J P Nadda, national president of BJP, and Amit Shah, Union Home Minister, were also checked in Bihar earlier. The allegation that only the helicopter of a leader of one national party was checked is baseless. (1) JP Nadda (date of visit April 24, 2024, Bhagalpur) (2) Amit Shah (date of visit April 21, 2024, Katihar),” the CEO said in the X post.

After Kharge’s helicopter was searched, Bihar Congress spokesperson Rajesh Rathod had alleged that EC officials were “targeting” opposition leaders, while leaders of the BJP-led NDA were permitted to move about “freely”.

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