New Delhi: The Election Commission on Thursday gave a clean chit to Prime minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi over their poll rally remarks, while it once again served a notice to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The EC said that PM Modi did not violate the model code of conduct during his election speech in Rajasthan's border town of Barmer where he invoked the armed forces and said that India's nuclear button was not kept to be used for Diwali. This is the third clean chit by the EC to the prime minister in connection with poll-related speeches.
Officials said the commission examined the matter in detail and it was of the "considered view that in this matter no such violation of the extant advisories/provisions is attracted."
On the other hand, Gandhi was cleared of allegations of poll code violation for his speech in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur where he called his BJP counterpart Amit Shah a "murder-accused". The BJP had complained to the EC about the comment.
The only leader to have been served an EC notice on Thursday was UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath. The poll body pointed out that while addressing a rally in Sambhal in Uttar Pradesh on April 19, Adityanath had said "would you hand over the reins of the country to terrorists, to those who call themselves children of Babur (Babur ki aulad)...to those who oppose Bajrangbali".
While giving him 24 hours to reply to the notice, the poll panel cited a provision under the Model Code of Conduct which states that no activity should be carried out which may aggravate existing difference or create mutual hatred between communities.
On April 15, the commission had censured Adityanath for his communal remarks and barred him for 72 hours from campaigning and on April 5, he was let off by the EC with a light rap for his "Modiji ke sena" remark.
Another prominent leader to get a notice in the afternoon was Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi. However, this was not by the EC but by the apex child rights body NCPCR.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) stated that the complaint pertains to a video in which children were seen using abusive language in front of Gandhi. In its notice, the child rights body objected to the use of children in election campaigning.
The body has asked the Congress general secretary to provide details, within three days, of the names and addresses of these children, places where sloganeering took place and how the children reached there.
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