Election Commission Has Banned BRS Chief KCR From Campaigning For 48 Hours Effective 8 pm 1st May.
In a setback to the already beleaguered Bharat Rashtra Samithi in Telangana, the Election Commission of India on Wednesday barred party president and former chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) from campaigning in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections for two days.
The EC ordered that starting 8 pm on Wednesday, KCR cannot address public meetings, take out processions and rallies, conduct road shows, give interviews to media or make public utterances for 48 hours for his comments against the Congress earlier last month.
In the four-page order, the commission “strongly condemned the impugned statement” made by him during his press meet in Sircilia on April 5.
The poll body said it was “convinced” that KCR’s alleged statements were in violation of the model code provisions.
The EC acted on a complaint given by Congress vice-president G Niranjan and the report submitted by the district election officer and chief electoral officer.
The report said KCR had used words like “latkhors”, “pakka chavata”, “daddhamas” and “chetakani chavatas” (useless fellows) for the Congress government in the state.
“…if you fail to give Rs 500 bonus on the minimum support price for paddy, I will bite your throat and kill…” he had said.
The ECI had issued a show-cause notice to KCR last month.
In his reply to the show-cause notice, KCR had said the officers in charge of election in Telangana and Sircilla are not Telugu and they hardly understand the local dialect of Telugu.
“The complaint is made by the Congress party by picking some sentences from his press conference out of context. The English translation of the sentences is not correct and twisted,” he said.
KCR had also said that he had confined his criticism to the policies and programmes of the Congress in the state and their failure to fulfil the promises made during the assembly elections and “he made no criticism of personal aspects of any Congress leaders.”
However, the Commission did not accept his explanation.
It said under Article 324 of the Constitution of India and all other powers enabling in this behalf, the EC was barring KCR from campaigning in the elections for 48 hours.
