The Election Commission on Wednesday issued a notice to Congress leader and candidate from Pindara in Uttar Pradesh Ajay Rai for prima facie violating the Model Code of Conduct by calling on voters to “bury” U.P. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The EC gave Mr. Rai 24 hours to respond to its show-cause notice, failing which it would presume he had nothing to say, and proceed with action without further reference to him.
The EC notice said the Commission had received a report from the Chief Electoral Officer of U.P. on February 5 regarding a speech by Mr. Rai that was circulating on social media. In the speech, Mr. Rai told voters to “bury Yogi and Modi in the ground” on March 7, the date of polling in the seventh phase of the polls. Earlier in the same speech, he said he had recently seen that the ration that was being distributed had “poison” mixed with it.
The EC said Mr. Rai’s speech prima facie violated the Model Code of Conduct provision against the use of “criticism of all aspects of private life, not connected with the public activities of the leader of other parties. Criticism of other parties or their workers based on unverified allegations or distortion”.
