Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has directed a First Information Report (FIR) to be registered against the Telangana Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Raja Singh for allegedly threatening people to vote for his party in the ongoing Uttar Pradesh elections.
Earlier, the ECI had issued a notice to the BJP MLA to show cause for his comments on the ongoing UP elections, within 24 hours, following a video that surfaced on social media.
The commission found Singh in violation of section 123 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 (Corrupt practices), sections 171 C (voluntarily interference or attempts to interfere with the free exercise of any electoral right commits the offence of undue influence at an election) and, 171 F (Punishment for undue influence or personation at an election) and various provisions of the poll code.
Initially, Singh had been granted 24 hours to respond to the notice but following his request for an extension, he was granted permission till 1:00 pm on Saturday. However, upon failure to respond to the notice, the commission ordered the Chief Electrol Officer to register an FIR against him.
The commission also temporarily suspended his powers as an MLA, prohibiting him from holding public meetings, processions, rallies, roadshows interviews, and interacting with any form of media.
The poll panel in its notice had cited a video clip of Raja Singh’s purported remarks while issuing him the notice.
“Those who do not vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party, I want to tell them that Yogi Ji has called for thousands of JCB bulldozers which have left for Uttar Pradesh. After the elections, all those areas which have not extended their support to Yogi ji will be identified and you know what JCBs and bulldozers are used for. So I want to tell those traitors of UP those who do not want Yogi Ji to be CM again that if you want to stay in UP you will have to chant Yogi-Yogi or else you’ll have to leave UP and run,” the BJP MLA had said in a video, that is being circulated on Twitter.
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