The Supreme Court has sought the Election Commission's response on a plea by a Congress MP who said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah had flouted the Model Code of Conduct when they made alleged hate speeches and used the armed forces for 'political propaganda'.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said the poll panel was free to pass orders on the complaint by Sushmita Dev, the Congress Lok Sabha MP from Silchar. Dev is also the president of the Mahila Congress.

The bench, comprising Justices S.K. Kaul and K.M. Joseph, will hear Dev's plea on Thursday.

The Congress MP has alleged that 'inaction' by the poll panel on complaints against top BJP leaders was 'a sign of invidious discrimination' as also 'arbitrary, capricious and impermissible'.

The plea listed out several alleged instances of poll code violations by Modi and Shah in their meetings and referred to as the first violation the speech of Modi at a rally at Wardha on April 1 where he allegedly raised the issue of 'bhagva aatankwad (saffron terror)'.