India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 28— The Delhi Election Commission on Tuesday took cognizance of alleged breach of moral code of conduct by BJP MP and star campaigners of Delhi election, Union Minister of State Anurag Thakur and MP Parvesh Verma.
The office of Delhi Election Commission said the Chief Election Officer of Delhi has submitted its report to the Election Commission of India on the suspected violation of model code of conduct by Thakur and Verma.
The report refers to Thakur’s alleged sloganeering ‘desh ke gaddaro ko, goli maro sa***o ko’ and Verma’s remarks on Shaheen Bagh and his tweet regarding religious places.
Verma had said that mosques and graveyards have come up in over 500 government properties in the Capital, including hospitals and schools. He said the land where these “illegal structures” have come up belong to the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Jal Board and many other government agencies.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has written to the Chief Election Commissioner complaining against violation of the model code of conduct by Union Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur over his “shoot the traitor” remark here on Monday.
In the letter, written on Monday and received by the Election Commissioner’s office on Tuesday, the AAP said such speech “is blatant violation” of the poll code. “This is a fit case for the ECI to not only to take appropriate action but also lodge an FIR with the police against Thakur,” it said.
Stating that such language is not allowed even in the normal circumstances, the AAP said, “This type of activity is described in the IPC as criminal offence.”
While campaigning for Manish Chaudhary (BJP) in the Rithala Assembly seat on Monday, Thakur raised the slogan “Desh ke gaddaro ko” and the crowd completed that with, “goli maaro sa***o ko” (Shoot the traitors).
BJP member of the Lok Sabha Hans Raj Hans is also seen on the stage in the Thakur’s video that went viral.
BJP Leaves Development Issues Behind, Targets Shaheen Bagh
After days of unsuccessful attempts to counter Aam Aadmi Party and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the development plank, the top BJP leadership is now making aggressive effort to use the 40-day long Shaheen Bagh protest against CAA-NRC-NPR in its favour as the D-day for the Delhi Assembly elections is approaching.
Leading from the front, Home Minister Amit Shah attacked the Shaheen Bagh protest, which has come to symbolize nationwide anger against the discriminatory citizenship law since it was passed on December 11.
“When you press the button (on the voting machine) on February 8, do so with such anger that its current is felt at Shaheen Bagh,” Shah said at an election rally in Delhi Sunday evening.
“Your vote to the BJP candidate will make Delhi and the country safe and prevent thousands of incidents like Shaheen Bagh,” Shah was quoted as saying by news agency PTI while campaigning for the BJP candidate in Babarpur constituency.
Shah was followed by Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who charged that the Shaheen Bagh protesters are trying “to suppress” the views of a “peaceful majority”. He even hit out at Kejriwal and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for “standing with the Tukde Tukde Gang” even though none of the two have visited Shaheen Bagh protest site.
“Shaheen Bagh is emerging as a textbook case of a few hundred people seeking to suppress the peaceful majority. This is the true face of Shaheen Bagh and uncovering it in front of the country is very important. Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal are both silent on this issue,” he said.
Since December 15, four days after the CAA was passed by the Parliament, hundreds of people, mostly women, have been holding round-the-clock sit-in on the Delhi-Noida highway seeking withdrawal of the law.
Some Opposition leaders have questioned Shah’s attack on Shaheen Bagh protest.
BJP ally JDU’s Vice President Prashant Kishor tweeted: “EVM buttons will be pressed with just love in Delhi on February 8. It should be a mild current, though, so brotherhood and friendship is not endangered.”
The elections for the 70-member Assembly will be held on February 8. In the previous polls in 2015, AAP had won 67 seats and BJP just 3.
— With Inputs From IANS
