Despite being scolded by the Election Commission during the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections last year for his alleged jibe against the poll panel and its electoral code of conduct, State Urban Development Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya hardly appeared to have learnt a lesson.
The Minister in a quiet disregard to the election model code of conduct, in a function here described such code of conduct of the Commission for the lok Sabha elections as impractical and accused the Apex electoral body of acting at the behest of the Congress party. He even dared the Election Commission to send him to jail for his remarks.
Vijayvargiya, who kept silence during the course of Chaitra Navratri, after ending his silence on Ramnavmi on Tuesday, was speaking during the inaugural ceremony of a pathology laboratory in the city. While inaugurating the lab, he made his first comment on the Election Commission, saying that if participation in religious and social functions amounts to the violation of election code of conduct, he hardly cared for it. The maximum, the Election Commission can do, will send him to the jail.
Not stopping here, he even went on to say that the Election Commission was allegedly acting at the behest of the senior Congress leadership. They did not see any violation of the election code of conduct in the meeting of AICC chairperson Sonia Gandhi with Imam Bukhari.
This is not the first time when Vijayvargiya has courted controversy for his off the cuff remarks as well as his remarks against the Election Commission. During the Madhya Pradesh Assembly elections in October last year, Vijayvargiya during a function to worship arms of a particular community on the occasion of Dusshera festival, had expressed his unhappiness over the issue of model code of conduct and said he did not care about the model code.
The Minister is also accused of distributing money to drum players during the ‘Chunri Yatra’ conducted by an organisation on October 11,2013, which is in violation of the model code.
The Election Commission, following a complaint of a Congress leader had slapped a notice against Vijayvargiya for making contemptuous remarks against the model code of conduct and distributing money. In January last year also, Vijayvargiya had invited wrath from political fraternity as well as people from other walks of life for his alleged remarks on the dressing sense of women.
Making an embarrassment for his own party, Vijayvargiya had suggested if women breached their moral limits, they asked for punishment. “Ek hi shabd hai - Maryada. Maryada ka ulanghan hota hai, toh Sita-haran ho jata hai. laxman-rekha har vyakti ki khichi gayi hai. Us laxman-rekha ko koi bhi par karega, toh Rawan samne baitha hai, woh Sita-haran karke le jayega. (One has to abide by certain moral limits. If you cross this limit you will be punished, just like Sita was abducted by Ravana),” Kailash Vijayvargiya said. later he was made to clarify for his objectionable remarks.