EC goes strict with BJP's heavyweight leaders in WB

The Election Commission of India on Tuesday took some strict stand against three heavyweight BJP leaders - state party president, Dilip Ghosh and senior leaders Rahul Sinha and Suvendu Adhikari.

Kolkata:The Election Commission has already been charged with behaving in a biased manner following the commission’s decision of imposing a 24-hour ban on West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee’s campaigning. However, the commission on Tuesday took some strict stand against three heavyweight BJP leaders - state party president, Dilip Ghosh and senior leaders Rahul Sinha and Suvendu Adhikari.

ECI, on Tuesday, imposed a 48-hour blanket ban on senior BJP leader, Rahul Sinha from campaigning, starting 12 PM on Tuesday till the same time on Thursday. Sinha has received this penalty over his remarks on the Cooch Behar firing incident, where he said, "Not four, eight people should have been shot dead in Sitalkuchi,". He made the comment while addressing a campaign rally at Habra constituency in the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal.

On the same day, ECI has issued a notice of state BJP president and Lok Sabha member, Dilip Ghosh for his comments that more Cooch Behar like incidents might happen if miscreants try to create a Sitalkuchi like situation in the forthcoming phases of polls. ECI has directed Dilip Ghosh to send a reply to the notice by 10 AM on Wednesday.

The decision of ECI against Sinha and Ghosh comes just a day after both Trinamool Congress and United Front delegations urged the commission to take action against BJP leaders for their provocative statements.

On Tuesday the commission also cautioned BJP leader and the party candidate from Nandigram, Suvendu Adhikari over his speech at Nandigram on March 29. On that day, Adhikari made a veiled reference to the chief minister by describing her as “Begum” and also allegedly played a religious card by appealing to the Hindu voters to vote for BJP’s symbol lotus, a must in Hindu ritual. CPI(ML) politburo member, Kavita Krishnan filed a complaint against Adhikari, following which he received a notice from the ECI.