Lok Sabha polls: Democracy in danger, conspiracy afoot to change Constitution, says Sonia Gandhi

India’s democracy is today in danger and a conspiracy is being made to change the Constitution, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi said on Saturday at a rally in Jaipur.

Gandhi said at the rally: “Modi ji [Prime Minister Narendra Modi], believing himself to be great, is destroying the dignity of democracy.”

In recent weeks, several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have stirred controversies by calling for amendments to the Constitution.

On March 9, BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde called for voters to give a two-thirds majority to his party in the Lok Sabha to enable amendments to the Constitution and undo the “unnecessary laws introduced to subjugate the Hindu community”.

On March 30, Jyoti Mirdha, the BJP candidate from the Nagaur constituency, said that her party needs an overwhelming majority in Parliament to change the Constitution. It was not clear what constitutional changes Mirdha was referring to.

Gandhi on Saturday also alleged that the Modi-led government was using several tactics to force Opposition leaders to join the BJP ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

“This is dictatorship,” she remarked. “We will all give a reply to this dictatorship.”

A day earlier, the Congress released its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections, in which it promised to conduct a nationwide caste census and provide a minimum support price to farmers as recommended by the MS Swaminathan Commission.

The party has also promised amendments to the law to make defection from political parties grounds for “automatic disqualification” from Legislative Assemblies or Parliament.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases from April 19 to June 1. The counting of votes will take place on June 4.