The Election Commission on Thursday ordered registration of FIR against controversial BJP MP Yogi Adityanath for “provoking feelings of enmity” during a recent speech in Noida. The poll panel reprimanded the BJP leader for violating the Model Code of Conduct and asked the Chief Electoral Officer of UP to lodge a case against him and report on action taken by Friday.
The EC rebuked Adityanath for allegedly invoking “religion” and making “appeal on this ground to secure votes” for his party ahead of the bypolls on Saturday. Earlier, the Commission had booked him for defying a ban on holding an election meeting in lucknow.
The order said, “The said speech had the effect of provoking feelings of enmity or hatred between different classes of the citizens of India on grounds of religion, race, caste, community or language and aggravating the existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic."
Asking BJP's lead campaigner in UP to be careful in his future public utterances, the poll panel expressed its displeasure with the MP for marking his letter to EC vaguely as “What So Ever It May Concern”.