Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur has been barred from campaigning for the upcoming Delhi elections for 72 hours, while BJP Member of Parliament Parvesh Sahib Singh has been barred for 96 hours, the Election Commission has announced. The Commission said that the ban on campaigning by these two BJP leaders came into force at 5 pm on Thursday.

“The Commission hereby condemns the impugned statement made by Parvesh Sahib Singh. The Commission, under Article 324 of the Constitution, and all other powers enabling it bar Parvesh Sahib Singh from holding any public meeting, public processions, public rallies, road shows and interviews and public utterances in media (electronic, print, social media) in connection with the ongoing general elections to the legislative assembly of NCT of Delhi,” the Commission said in its order.

The Commission did not consider the request of Singh for a personal hearing and said he had made “undesirable and objectionable statements which had the potential to aggravate existing differences and create mutual hatred between different religious communities, and thus violated the provisions of the Model Code of Conduct and the Representation of People Act 1951.”

The Commission’s order comes after it received a report from the Chief Electoral Officer, Delhi, referring to an objectionable post on the twitter handle of ANI quoting from an interview to ANI and a public speech made by Singh on January 28 in the Vikaspuri Assembly constituency.”

On Wednesday, the Commission had removed the two BJP leaders from the list of the party’s star campaigners for the Delhi polls to be held on February 8.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW