The Election Commission of India has issued notice to the Congress’ Telangana unit over some personal and derogatory remarks allegedly made by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy against Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) President K. Chandrasekhar Rao.
Chief Electoral Officer Vikas Raj has sought an explanation from the party’s state unit Vice President and Election Commission Coordination Committee Chairman G. Niranjan.
The notice was issued after BRS General Secretary M. Sreenivas Reddy lodged a complaint with the Election Commission against Revanth Reddy for making personal, threatening and demeaning remarks against the BRS leader in violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
Sreenivas Reddy alleged that Revanth Reddy, who is also the state Congress President, has been using demeaning, personal, derogatory and vulgar language while criticising the former Chief Minister during the public meetings in violation of the Model Code of Conduct, and requested the poll panel to take necessary action against him.
The CEO has asked Niranjan to submit the explanation/reply within 48 hours.
“In the event of no response from your side within the stipulated time, it will be presumed that you have nothing to say in the matter and appropriate action or decision will be taken without making any further reference to you, as per law established for violation of Model Code of Conduct during the General Election to Lok Sabha 2024,” reads the notice.
On May 1, the Election Commission had barred KCR, as Chandrasekhar Rao is commonly known, from campaigning for 48 hours for making derogatory and objectionable statements against the Congress.
It took action after the CEO sent a factual report following a complaint by Niranjan that the BRS chief, at his press meet, made derogatory and objectionable statements against the Congress. After going through the contents of the complaint by Niranjan and KCR’s reply, the Commission found that KCR not only violated the provisions of the Model Code of Conduct by making the objectionable and derogatory utterances on April 5 at Sircilla but he had also been violating the MCC provisions during the past elections.