The Election Commission has reprimanded Gujarat Congress president Arjun Modhvadia for his November 2 speech at Vadodara attacking the personal and private life of Chief Minister Narendra Modi.
The full Commission — Chief Election Commissioner V.S. Sampath and Commissioners H.S. Brahma and S.N.A. Zaidi — which considered the PCC president’s reply to the EC notice, warned him to be careful in future and not to violate the model code of conduct.
The EC rejected his denial of code violation and his claim that his speech (in Gujarati) at the public meeting was translated incorrectly. He “circumvented the matter instead of sending the correct translation if he genuinely believed that his speech has been incorrectly translated.”
The EC action came on a petition filed by BJP MP and State unit general secretary Balkrishna Shukla.
Notice to Keshubhai
Acting on another complaint of code violation, the EC issued notice to the former Chief Minister and Gujarat Parivartan Party president Keshubhai Patel for using a pilot police car with beacon lights and siren during his travel. His explanation is due by 5 p.m. on December 15.
