EC slaps 48-hour campaign ban on Kapil Mishra; show-cause notice to Bagga

BJP candidate Kapil Mishra has been banned from campaigning by the Election Commission for 48 hours starting Saturday evening following his controversial tweets, which compared the Delhi elections to an "India-Pakistan" contest.

It also issued a BJP's Hari Nagar candidate Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga over his campaign video song 'Bagga, Bagga Har Jagah Bagga (Bagga, Bagga, Everywhere Bagga), asking why the expenditure should not be added to his poll expenses.

The EC's action on Mishra, the former AAP MLA who is contesting from Model Town in the Delhi Assembly elections, came after the police on Friday registered a case against him on the direction of the poll body, which had issued a show-cause notice to him. It had also asked Twitter to take down the controversial tweets, saying it "amounted to appealing to communal feelings".

Reacting to the EC order that said that the ban would start from 5 PM on Saturday, Kapil Mishra tweeted in the afternoon, "remain silent. Remain silent seeing burning buses, remain silent see police being beaten up, remain silent when 'azadi' slogans are raised; remain silent when leaders who lick the shoes of 'tukde-tukde gang', they will stand with the Shaheen Bagh but you keep quiet. Seeing the occupation on the streets, keep quiet. Full Silence."

In his controversial tweets, he said, "Pakistan has made its entry in Shaheen Bagh. Small, small Pakistans are being created in Delhi....Pakistani rioters have occupied the Delhi streets." He also alleged that Congress and AAP have created "mini-Pakistan" in Delhi and in response to this, India will stand up to them on February 8, which will be a contest between India and Pakistan.

Responding to his show-cause notice, he had said he has not named any caste, community, religion or linguistic group and his "statement must be seen in the context of Pakistan's attempt at sending their proxies to take undue advantage of a prevailing law and order situation in Delhi".

On Bagga, EC officials said the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) of West Delhi district had sent an email raising suspicion of paid news in his campaign video song 'Bagga Bagga Har Jagah'. In the notice, he has been asked why the expenditure on the song shouldn't be added to his poll expenses as he had not taken permission to post the music campaign video.

Bagga tweeted, "complaints are being given to the EC against me as (Arvind) Kejriwal ji scared of me. (AAP leader) Sanjay Singh has been sent to Hari Nagar 40 times in last four days. I am a common man and Kejriwal's candidate pitted against me has assets worth Rs 50 crore."