A delegation of Congress leaders approached the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday asking for a ban on campaigning by Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur and BJP Lok Sabha MP Parvesh Verma for the February 8 Delhi Assembly elections because of their “provocative statements to incite communal violence”.
“The BJP’s star campaigners Parvesh Verma and Anurag Thakur have used objectionable language. Top BJP leaders, including Home Minister Amit Shah, are going around the lanes and bylanes of Delhi, making provocative statements to polarise the atmosphere and incite communal violence. The BJP is doing so out of frustration,” senior Congress leader Ajay Maken told reporters after handing over a memorandum.
“The ECI has accepted that they have made provocative statements and we have demanded that they be banned from campaigning,” he added.
Mr. Maken said that the EC informed the delegation led by Delhi Congress chief Subhash Chopra that a meeting of all senior poll and police officials would be convened on January 31.
Earlier in the day, former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram also questioned the ECI for not acting against the BJP leaders.
Commenting on Mr. Thakur’s controversial comments “that seemed to incite people to violence”, Mr. Chidambaram said, “Will it not amount to inciting and encouraging violence against a section of the people? Will the Election Commission of India wake up from its slumber? As every day passes, the rhetoric of the BJP reminds one of Germany in the 1930s.”
During an election rally in Delhi earlier this week, Mr. Thakur had egged on the crowd to raise an incendiary slogan after lashing out at anti-CAA protestors. MP for West Delhi, Mr. Verma, had described the Shaheen Bagh protestors as a threat to women’s security.
