Following controversial remarks by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Rajasthan’s Banswara, the Election Commission of India on Thursday sought reply from BJP president JP Nadda on complaint by Congress and other Opposition parties. The apex poll body has asked to reply by Monday (April 29), reports PTI.
The ECI also asked the Congress to respond to complaints filed by the BJP against the main opposition party’s president Mallikarjun Kharge and its senior leader Rahul Gandhi regarding their respective remarks.
In its letter addressed to BJP President J P Nadda, the ECI asked him to respond by Monday to complaints filed by the Congress, CPI and CPI (ML) regarding the ‘infiltrators’ and ‘mangalsutra’ remarks made by Modi on April 21 in Banswara.
The ECI wrote to Kharge and Nadda in its notice, “In view of the…plenary power of the political parties to nominate or withdraw the star campaigner’s status with associated responsibility and authority to control their star campaigners, the Commission has taken a view that while the individual star campaigner would continue to remain responsible for speeches made, the Commission will address party President/head of the political party, on case-to-case basis.”
It also asked both the party chiefs to bring to the notice of all star campaigners of the party to “set high standards of political discourse and observe provisions of model code of conduct in letter and spirit”.
According to officials, PTI reports, it is the first time that the panel has taken cognisance of a complaint against any prime minister. The Election Commission has invoked provisions of the Representation of the People Act to hold party presidents as the first step to rein in star campaigners.
The letters from the EC to the two-party presidents did not directly name either Modi, Gandhi or Kharge, but the representations received by it were attached to the respective letters and they contained details of allegations against the three leaders.
In the complaint submitted to the Election Commission, the Congress party alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a recent address, alleged that the Congress intended to redistribute the wealth of the populace to Muslims and suggested that the opposition party would not hesitate to confiscate women’s ‘mangalsutras’.
In response, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lodged a complaint with the EC, asserting that Rahul Gandhi had made malicious and deeply sinister accusations against Modi during a speech in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu. The saffron party also accused Mallikarjun Kharge of violating the model code of conduct by claiming that he was not extended an invitation to the consecration ceremony of the Ram temple, attributing it to discrimination against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.