West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has been barred from campaigning for 24 hours by the Election Commission of India for her “highly insinuating and provocative remarks”, which the poll body said has “serious potential of the breakdown of law and order and thereby affecting the election process".
Condemning Mamata Banerjee's statements made during poll rallies earlier this month, the EC advised her to desist from using such statements in public while the model code of conduct is in force.
The EC order banning the TMC chief from campaigning for 24 hours was based on two notices served to her on April 7 and April 8.
Mamata Banerjee announced a sit-in protest against the ban. "To protest against the undemocratic and unconstitutional decision of the Election Commission of India, I will sit on dharna tomorrow at Gandhi Murti, Kolkata from 12 noon," she tweeted.
The EC found the statement to be in violation contained in Section 123 (3), 3 (A) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and clauses (2), (3), and (4) of Part 1 of 'General Conduct of Model Code of Conduct for the guidance of political parties and candidates.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah Monday asserted that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) will have no impact on the Gorkhas, and accused the ruling TMC in West Bengal of misleading the people of the hills.
Addressing the public after a roadshow in Kalimpong, Shah said as long as the Narendra Modi-led BJP government is there at the Centre, Gorkhas will not be harmed. “NRC has not yet been implemented, but whenever it is done, not a single Gorkha will be asked to leave,” PTI quoted him as saying.
A few days back, BJP's Himanta Biswa Sarma was also banned for 48 hours after he used provocative language to incite people's to vote on religious norms.
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