NEW DELHI: The Election Commission (EC) on Friday gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on two complaints of Model Code violation. The EC also gave a clean chit to BJP chief Amit Shah for his remarks in an election rally where he had purportedly said that it was difficult to make out if Wayanad is in India or Pakistan.
The poll panel also accepted request of Congress president Rahul Gandhi for time till May 7 to reply on its notice for his remarks that the Modi government enacted a law allowing tribals to be shot.The Commission has so far given clean chits on five complaints of the Congress. On Friday, it also cleared Modi for giving a television interview in a boat on river Ganga in Varanasi. The fourth clean chit to Modi involved Congress complaints for his speech in Nanded, Maharashtra, where he had taken potshots at Rahul Gandhi for choosing to contest from a constituency where “majority is in minority”.
In orders concerning other leaders, the EC found that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao had violated the Model Code of Conduct in his alleged “anti-Hindu” remarks, as alleged by Vishwa Hindu Parishad, in a speech in Karimnagar on March 17.
The EC also served notice to senior BJP leader and Union minister Mahesh Sharma for his remarks against scores of Opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, Mamata Banerjee and HD Deve Gowda, made during an election speech in Sikandarabad in Uttar Pradesh on March 16. Sharma has to reply to notice within 24 hours.
‘Digvijaya Singh, Surjewala pocketed cuts’
The BJP on Friday alleged that Congress leaders Digvijaya Singh and Randeep Singh Surjewala “pocketed cuts from loots under the party-led MP government”. BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao alleged Singh and Surjewala got `90 lakh and ` 25 lakh, respectively, from corruption under the Kamal Nath government.