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EC issues show cause notice to BJP over AAP complaint
AAP had filed a complaint on November 16 over a video that the BJP Delhi’s official Facebook and X accounts posted on November 5
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has issued a show cause notice to Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Virendra Sachdeva over derogatory posts sent from BJP Delhi’s official accounts.
The action comes in response to a complaint by the Aam Aadmi Party.
Sachdeva has been asked to provide an explanation by 8pm on November 23 on why action should not be taken against him for the violation of the model code of conduct.
The EC noted that it was prima facie of the view that the tweet and the post AAP had complained about were in violation of the model code of conduct. It noted that as a national party, the BJP and its Delhi unit are expected to “exercise caution through verification of facts before publishing and disseminating such content in public domain”.
The model code of conduct has been in effect since October 9 due to the assembly elections in the states of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram, Rajasthan and Telangana.
Also Read: AAP accuses BJP of violating model code of conduct in complaint to EC
In its notice, the EC noted that it had been issuing advisories to political parties to maintain high standards of electoral campaign and cited its May 2 instructions about the “plummeting level of public discourse during campaigning, maintaining of expected level of dignity by star campaigners, recognised National and State Political Parties”.
AAP had filed a complaint on November 16 over a video that the BJP Delhi’s official Facebook and X accounts posted on November 5.
“BJP trying to create a parody is a mean and ugly attempt to tarnish the image of the Hon’ble Chief Minister and AAP without any basis whatsoever amounting to public abuse, denigration and vilification of the Hon’ble Chief Minister,” the complaint had said.
The EC noted that the public tend to believe statements by a national party to be true.
“Such belief is bound to affect the outcome of the elections,” the notice said.
BJP complains to EC against Congress
Meanwhile, the BJP filed a complaint against the Congress on Tuesday for publishing an advertisement in leading national dailies on November 20 which read, “Rajasthan mein Congress ki leher [Congress sweeps Rajasthan]”.
The BJP has called for a notice to be issued against Congress and for the EC to refrain Congress from publishing any election related advertisements.
It has also called on the EC to file an FIR (first information report) against Congress and for the party to issue a public apology in the same newspapers.
It has also called the EC to take action against the newspapers that carried the advertisement and asked them to publish an apology and a clarification.
Calling it a “misleading and mischievous” advertisement, the BJP said that the Congress had designed the advertisement to mislead voters into thinking that it is a “news/opinion published by the News paper [sic] Agency after a survey”.
The advertisement was published just five days before the scheduled assembly elections in Rajasthan.
“The publishers [sic] byline has deliberately been printed in a font size, so miniscule, that it is impossible for the reader to know the publisher of advertisement,” the complaint filed by BJP’s Mansukh Mandaviya, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Om Pathak and Amir Malviya read.
The BJP cited section 171G of the Indian Penal Code (false statement in connection with an election) and the Norms of Journalistic Conduct, 2022, in its complaint.
