West Bengal: Election Commission bans BJP leader Rahul Sinha from campaigning for 48 hours

By Team Newsable | First Published Apr 13, 2021, 3:44 PM IST

A day after imposing a campaigning ban on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for 24 hours, the Election Commission on Tuesday, 13 April, banned Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Rahul Sinha from campaigning for 48 hours in the fifth phase of Assembly elections in the state, charging him of making “highly provocative statements mocking the human life.”

The Election Commission imposed a ban on BJP leader Rahul Sinha from campaigning for the next 48 hours commencing from 12 pm today till 12 pm on April 15 over his remarks on violence in Cooch Behar's Sitalkuchi area.

Taking suo moto cognisance of the matter, the poll panel considered that Sinha, BJP's candidate in the Habra constituency in West Bengal, “violated the provisions of Model Code of Conduct,” announcing that the leader is banned from “campaigning in any manner for the next 48 hours commencing from 12 hours today (Tuesday) till 12 hours on April 15.”

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"The Central Forces have given them a befitting answer. If they do it again they will be dealt again in a befitting manner. The Central Forces should have killed eight persons instead of four in Shitalkuchi. The Central Forces should be issued a show cause notice as to why they have killed only four of them," Sinha had said.

The commission decided to issue this order without giving any prior notice to Sinha due to urgency of the matter.

Sinha is the second BJP leader after the party's West Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh who courted controversy over his remarks regarding firing on some people by the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) last week in Sitalkuchi Assembly Constituency in Cooch Behar district in which four people were killed during the fourth phase of Assembly elections.

The commission said that Sinha “made highly provocative statements mocking human life, inciting the forces that could have serious law and order implications thereby adversely affecting the election process.”

“The Commission hereby strongly condemns the statements made by Rahul Sinha, BJP and sternly warns him to be careful from using such statements while making public utterances during the period when Model Code of conduct is in force.”

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