The Election Commission (EC) on Monday “strongly condemned” Union Minister Maneka Gandhi for her “ABCD” remark in Sultanpur where she warned voters that Government work suffers in areas which do not vote for her even as it issued a show cause notice to another Union Minister and BJP leader Giriraj Singh for his communal remarks. He has been given 24 hours to respond to the notice.
In another order, the poll body has directed not to release ‘Laxmi’s NTR’ movie till further order.
Condemning Maneka Gandhi for her remarks in Sultanpur, the EC said in its order that Maneka has not only violated provisions of the model code, but also the Representation of the People Act dealing with “corrupt practice”. The commission also warned her not to repeat “such misconduct in future”.
Addressing a poll meeting in Sarkoda village in Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh on April 14, Maneka had said, “We win in Pilibhit every time, so what is the parameter that we work more for one village and less for the other?” “The parameter is that we segregate all villages as A, B, C, and D. The village where we get 80 per cent votes is A, the village in which we get 60 per cent is B, the village in which we get 50 per cent is kept in C category and the village where we get less than 50 per cent is marked as D.” She said the development work first happens in all A category villages. Then comes B and only after work in B is done, we start with C, the minister had said.
On April 15, the poll panel had reprimanded her and barred her from holding campaigning for 48 hours for her communal remarks.
Issuing a show cause notice to Union Minister Giriraj Singh, the poll body said that prima facie, Singh has violated provisions of the model code and directions of the Supreme Court which had said that religion cannot be used while making statements during campaigning. Taking suo motu cognizance, the Begusarai district administration in Bihar had on April 25 booked Singh for violating the model code of conduct and the Representation of the People Act by making controversial remarks against Muslims at a rally on April 24, where BJP president Amit Shah was also present. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, he was barred from campaigning in Bihar and Jharkhand for communal remarks.
In Birbhum constituency, the EC has show-caused BJP candidate Dudh Kumar Mondal after he was seen talking over a mobile phone inside a polling booth, just before casting his ballot. Notably, the poll panel has put TMC’s Birbhum president Anubrata Mondal under scanner after poll workers complained that they feel “threatened” by his presence.
In another order, the EC directed producers not to release the movie on Laxmi’s NTR till further order. In its order directing the producers of ‘Laxmi’s NTR’, said the biopic of the late NT Rama Rao, which ‘purported’ to depict incumbent state Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in a manner ‘allegedly diminishing the electoral prospects of his party’.
