Incendiary poll slogans: 15 reports sent to ECI

Mumbai: The state branch of the Election Commission of India has sent at least 15 reports to the ECI headquarters in New Delhi regarding objectionable slogans and statements by political leaders – such as vote jihad, batenge toh katenge and dharmayudh – in the run-up to and during the assembly poll held on Wednesday. The ECI is expected to take action against leaders of various parties including the BJP and Shiv Sena (UBT) for inflammatory slogans and violation of the code of conduct, although there is no clarity on the deadline.
According to top officials of the state election commission, some reports were sent by the office of the chief electoral officer of Maharashtra, while in some cases, the ECI had asked for reports.
Slogans on which reports have been sent to the ECI include Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s statement, ‘Batenge toh katenge’. The slogan was raised by Adityanath in two rallies in Maharashtra during campaigning, leading to a flutter in political circles. Deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ reference to elections as ‘dharmayudh’ (religious battle), made in response to Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray’s statement on the elections being a clash between rashtradrohis (anti-national) and rashtrapremi (patriot), has been addressed in a separate report.
Some reports addressed references to vote jihad, not only by BJP leaders who termed Muslims’ backing of the opposition Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA) as vote jihad, but also Muslim cleric Sajjad Nomani’s appeal to Muslims for ‘vote jihad’ and his threat regarding boycotting those who voted for BJP in the Lok Sabha polls.
“The ECI is going through the reports and consulting legal experts and lawyers. We expect them to take action in the next three months – though initiating action in such matters take time, it is certainly done,” said an official. It took almost five years to initiate action against Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray for raising a Hindutva slogan decades ago, the official added.
Another official said that the ECI has taken serious note of cases of violence, hooliganism and cash distribution. Out of a total of 659 cases registered since October 15, when the model code of conduct came into existence, around 150 cases were registered on the day of polling on Wednesday.
“Cases of damaging polling machinery and attacks on polling officers are taken seriously and those involved are not spared,” the official said. In the Parli assembly constituency in Beed, where six polling stations were vandalised, the main culprits have been arrested and the election commission has asked for stricter sections of various acts to be applied, the official added.
The commission is also looking into a complaint against chief minister Ekanath Shinde for holding a road show in Chandivali on the day of polling. “Though we were informed that he visited Chandivali and Worli on his way from Thane, we are looking into it. We had asked the chief minister not to go to Varsha, his official residence, from his constituency Thane until polling ended,” the official quoted above said.
Election commission officials also confirmed that press conferences scheduled on Tuesday by BJP leader Vinod Tawde and Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray were cancelled on their directives.