BJP ad depicts ‘taking away SC, ST, OBC quotas’
New Delhi, Nov 11: A Congress delegation on Monday took up with the Election Commission eight complaints regarding Jharkhand and Maharashtra assembly polls, including a “communal” image posted by the BJP depicting reservations being taken from SCs, STs and OBCs and given to members of a minority community.
The opposition party claimed that all the eight complaints raised by it were found “valid” by the poll body.
“We raised some serious concerns with the Election Commission. These matters were discussed today. All the eight complaints raised by the Congress were found valid by the Election Commission,” Congress MP Sasikanth Senthil, who led the delegation, told reporters outside the EC office here.
In his memorandum to the EC on Monday, Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh cited the said image posted on the BJP’s X handle with the caption — “Congress-led MVA’s game of appeasement is ON… Vote wisely, Maharashtra”.
“The image in the post falsely depicted an individual forcing out members of the SC, ST and OBC communities out of a rickshaw and accommodating a person belonging to a certain religious minority community,” Ramesh said in his memorandum. The image is clearly a brazen and blatant attempt by the BJP to propagate a false and baseless narrative about the Congress, he said.
“In light of the above, we request that this Hon’ble Commission directs the immediate takedown of the post from all social media handles of the BJP. Further, we request that this Hon’ble Commission takes urgent action against the BJP and its Official X Handle i.e. BJP4India,” Ramesh said.
The cartoon posted by the BJP shows a person resembling Congress leader Rahul Gandhi pushing members of SC, ST and OBC communities out of a rickshaw and accommodating a person belonging to a certain religious minority community.
Earlier, sources said an FIR has been lodged at Ranchi for violation of the Model Code of Conduct and legal provisions against the BJP’s Jharkhand unit for posting false and misleading videos on the ‘BJP 4 Jharkhand’ social media handle against INDIA bloc leaders. The cybercrime police station Ranchi has also written to the microblogging platform to remove the objectionable posts under Section 69(A) of the IT Act, the sources said. (PTI)