Bar Kharge from campaign, BJP urges EC; Congress seeks ban on Shah, Yogi

Union minister Bhupender Yadav, who led the BJP delegation, told reporters that Kharge's comment was not merely a slip of the tongue but part of the Congress' "hate politics".

Addressing a campaign rally for the May 10 Karnataka assembly polls, Kharge likened Modi to a poisonous snake. (PTI Photo)

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The BJP and the Congress approached the Election Commission on Friday, both seeking a ban on the other party’s leaders from campaigning for the Assembly polls.

While the BJP urged the poll panel to bar Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge for his remark on Thursday comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to a “poisonous snake”, the Congress sought a ban on Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for trying to create an “atmosphere of communal disharmony” in Karnataka by making “unverified, false, malicious and communally charged” allegations in their speeches.

Also read | BJP answers poison with poison: After Kharge calls Modi a ‘snake’, BJP calls Sonia ‘vishakanya’

A BJP delegation, led by Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, met the EC on Friday afternoon. After the meeting, Yadav told the media that the leaders had raised the issue as Kharge’s remarks were not a one-off incident, but a part of the party’s strategy. The party also asked for an FIR to be registered against the Congress president.

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The Congress’s petition, meanwhile, cited Amit Shah’s recent speech in Vijayapura where the minister said that “if people voted for the Congress party in the elections, it would trigger communal violence in the state”.

On Adityanath, the Congress said that at a rally in Mandya this week the UP CM made statements that were “flagrantly false” and were aimed at “tarnishing the image of the Congress” and “creating an atmosphere of communal disharmony”.

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