West Assembly elections: EC notice to Suvendu Adhikari for communal overtones in his speech

He has been asked to respond to the notice within 24 hours

The Election Commission on Thursday served a notice to Suvendu Adhikari as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s bet against Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee at Nandigram in West Bengal allegedly violated the Model Code of Conduct with a hate-speech on March 29 last.

The EC served the notice to Adhikari just a day after it did the same to Banerjee.

The poll-panel acted on a complaint it received from the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) leader Kavita Krishnan over a speech delivered by the BJP candidate in Nandigram. He allegedly referred to Banerjee, his rival and the Chief Minister of West Bengal, as ‘Begum’ and went on to urge people to vote against “appeasement”, apparently accusing the ruling Trinamool Congress of being biased towards the Muslims.

Read: EC can serve 10 notices: Mamata says she'll continue to oppose dividing voters on religious lines

The EC obtained an authenticated transcript of the speech delivered by Adhikari, who allegedly said that if people of Nandigram voted for ‘Begum’, they would turn the place into a “mini Pakistan”. He also said that people should vote for ‘Lotus’, the poll symbol of the BJP, as it was the flower Lord Rama had used to worship Goddess Durga.

The poll-panel pointed out in its notice that the Model Code of Conduct had prohibited appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes as well as criticism of other parties or leaders and workers of other parties based on unverified allegations.

The EC stated that it had examined the statement made by the BJP leader and had concluded that it had violated the Model Code of Conduct.

The commission gave Adhikari 24 hours to explain his position on the complaint lodged against him.

Adhikari was a protege of Banerjee, but left the Trinamool Congress to join the BJP just ahead of the Assembly elections in the State. The Trinamool Congress supremo chose to contest from Nandigram after the BJP had fielded him as its candidate in the constituency.

The EC had on Wednesday served a notice to the Trinamool Congress supremo for allegedly flouting the Model Code of Conduct with an appeal to the state’s minority Muslims not to let the BJP split the votes of the community.