New Delhi: In a second clean chit in 24 hours, the Election Commission has said PM Modi did not violate the model code of conduct when he appealed to first-time voters in Latur by citing the terror attack in Pulwama and the air strikes at Balakot.
The poll body said, after examining the complete transcript of the speech, the commission is of the “considered view that in this matter no such violation of the extant advisories/provisions is attracted.”While addressing a rally in Latur on April 9, the Prime Minister had said: “I want to ask my first-time voters, can your first vote be dedicated to the soldiers who conducted the Balakot air strikes?
Can your first vote be in the name of the martyrs who lost their lives in Pulwama?”The Election Commission had declared in March that the armed forces cannot be dragged into the poll campaign after opposition complained that the BJP was invoking the Pulwama terror attack and the Balakot air strikes.
On Tuesday, the poll panel had got a notice from the Supreme Court on a petition that accused it of “inaction” over complaints against PM Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah. The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had said it would hear the case on Thursday. The Congress had said that even though the complaints have been pending for three weeks, the commission has not responded.
PRAGYA GAGGED FOR 72 HOURS: The Election Commission, meanwhile, reacted with alacrity and has barred BJP candidate from Bhopal Sadhvi Pragya Singh Thakur from campaigning for 72 hours for her remarks on former ATS chief Hemant Karkare and Babri mosque demolition.
The panel “strongly condemned” her remarks” and “warned her “not to repeat the misconduct in future”. The EC said though Pragya had apologised for her statement on the slain IPS officer, it found the statement to be “unwarranted”. The ban would come into force from 6.00 AM, May 2 (Thursday).
Pragya had said Karkare was killed in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attack because of her “curse” as he had “tortured” her when he probed the Malegaon blast case. She had also said that she was “proud” of her participation in the demolition of the Ayodhya shrine in 1992.
