The Election Commission on Tuesday rebuked Congress leader Randeep Surjewala for his alleged disrespectful comments about BJP MP Hema Malini and banned him from campaigning for 48 hours.
This is the first campaign ban imposed by the Election Commission in this Lok Sabha election cycle.
The Election Commission, in its notice to Surjewala, stated that upon thorough review, the remarks were determined to be "highly undignified, vulgar and uncivilised" and breached the regulations outlined in the Model Code of Conduct and the advisory provided to political parties by the election commission the previous month.
The Election Commission dismissed his assertion and stated that the returning officer for the Kaithal district had recorded that the Congress leader had uttered the comments on March 31 in Faral village within the Pundri assembly section, and the complete speech was captured on video by the surveillance team.
The poll watchdog told him that it was convinced that he had made the said statement and thus violated provisions of the model code of conduct.
"The commission without prejudice to any order/notice issued or to be issued subsequently to him in the matter relating to MCC violations, hereby, strongly condemns the impugned statement made by him during the election campaign held in Haryana and reprimands Randeep Surjewala for the misconduct," the order said.
The Election Commission, utilizing its constitutional authority as outlined in Article 324, has prohibited Surjewala from participating in any public gatherings, processions, rallies, road shows, and media interviews (across electronic, print, and social platforms) related to the current elections for a period of 48 hours starting from 6 pm on April 16th.
The Election Commission had last Tuesday issued a show-cause notice to Surjewala for his alleged "undignified, uncivilised and vulgar" remarks against Malini.
In his reply to the show-cause notice, the Congress general secretary had maintained that the video cited by the BJP was "doctored".
