Campaign ban on Thakur, Verma

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 30

After asking the party to withdraw them from the list of BJP’s star campaigners yesterday, the Election Commission today barred Union Minister Anurag Thakur from campaigning in the Delhi Assembly elections for three days and Lok Sabha member Parvesh Verma for four days for their objectionable remarks.

EC officials said after scrutinising their reply to the show cause notices served on them, the commission felt that they were “not satisfactory” and so a decision was taken to bar them from campaigning.

West Delhi MP Verma on Tuesday said what happened in Kashmir with Kashmiri Pandits could happen in Delhi, warning that lakhs of anti-CAA protesters in Shaheen Bagh could enter homes to rape and kill women.

During an election rally here, Union Minister Thakur egged on the crowd to raise an incendiary slogan – “shoot the traitors”- after he lashed out at anti-CAA protesters.

Not satisfied with the EC decisions to bar BJP leaders from campaigning, senior AAP leaders Sanjay Singh and Pankaj Gupta sat on a dharna outside the Nirvachan Sadan here with some of their supporters asking for a case to be registered against Verma for his remarks calling Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal a “terrorist”.

“We are demanding that an FIR be registered against Verma and strict action taken against him,” Singh said, as Gupta contended

that simple campaign ban “imposed on Verma is not enough and an FIR should be registered against him”.