Delhi Chief Election Officer (CEO) Ranbir Singh on Tuesday issued a statement reiterating that the use of caste and religion in election campaigning is strictly prohibited.
This comes days after the BJP wrote to the CEO regarding the appointment of ‘special observers’ at mosques in city to check attempts to influence voters along religious lines.
It said that no religious places such as mosques, gurdwaras or any place of worship must be used for election propaganda.
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And that no political or religious leader must indulge in activities that aggravate existing differences between the communities.
Routine reiteration
The Delhi CEO said that this was a routine reiteration of the election commission’s guidelines, adding that there were no plans to appoint special observers at mosques.
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The BJP’s Minority Morcha chief, Mohmmad Haroon welcomed the statement, saying that the Aam Aadmi Party was regularly carrying out communal campaigning at religious institutions.
The election commission also informed that as part of its efforts to enforce the model code of conduct, up to 1.8 lakh political hoardings and posters have been removed in Delhi so far.
FIRs registered
Up to 257 FIRs had been registered and 263 persons arrested under the Excise Act.
It also said that up to 14,716 people were booked under various sections of CrPC and Delhi Police as preventive action. Apart from this, 90 unlicenced arms and 2,117 cartridges, bombs or explosives were seized.
Additionally, five FIRs or Daily Diary (DD) entries were lodged against political parties for model code violations, out of which two each were filed against the Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP and one against ‘others’.