E-Paper
‘Respond before 5 pm tomorrow’: EC sends notice to Arvind Kejriwal over Twitter video
Kejriwal has been asked to respond to the notice before 5.00 pm on Saturday, the day of polling in Delhi.
Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party convenor Arvind Kejriwal has been issued a notice by the election commission for posting a questionable video on his Twitter handle targeting the opposition with the potential to promote enmity on grounds of religion, caste community or language, said the poll panel.
Kejriwal has been asked to respond to the notice before 5.00 pm on Saturday, the day of polling in Delhi.
The video allegedly suggests that Kejriwal and his party were fighting elections on the development plank while others were busy talking about “Hindu-Muslim”, “CAA” and “Mandir-Masjid”.,
The election commission notice says it was acting on a complaint filed by the BJP on February 4, 2020 alleging Kejriwal had uploaded the video with the intention of “gaining votes by aggravating existing differences/creating mutual hatred/causing tension between religious communities in violation of model code of conduct.”
The commission says it prima facie finds that Kejriwal had violated the model code of conduct.
“The video had the potential of disturbing communal harmony aggravating existing differences between social and religious communities and the same amounts to appeal to caste or communal feelings for security votes,” says the EC notice.
Section 125 of the representation of the Representation of the People’s Act bars candidates and political parties from promoting enmity using community, religion, race, caste, language and provides for a maximum of three years in jail for those found guilty.
Kejriwal becomes the latest high profile leader to join the list of those who have been asked to explain their conduct by the election commission.
UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Union minister Anurag Thakur, MP Parvesh Verma and Kapil Mishra are some of the BJP leaders who have found themselves in the line of fire from the poll panel.
Yogi Adityanath was asked yesterday to explain his comments that Arvind Kejriwal was in the habit of feeding Biryani to alleged anti-nationals like those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Shaheen Bagh, Delhi. He was asked to submit his response by 5pm on Friday.
