EC issues notice to Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut

Mumbai: Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut has been issued notice by the Mumbai election officer for allegedly violating the model code of conduct for his comments against the Communist Party of India’s candidate Kanhaiya Kumar.

Mr Raut said in the Shiv Sena’s publication Saamana that Mr Kumar must be defeated in the upcoming polls, even if it needed the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) to tamper with Electronic Voting Machines (EVM).

In his signed column of Shiv Sena’s mouthpiece, Mr Raut stated that Kumar, ‘a bottle of poison’, must not reach the Parliament and that his victory would mean the defeat of the Constitution.

The Mumbai district officer issued notice to the Shiv Sena leader Monday, who has been directed to respond by Wednesday. The election commission will take further action on the issue.

The Mumbai city collector and district election officer Shivaji Jondhale, in the notice said that Mr Raut’s statement showed ‘lack of faith in the deployment of EVMs and muddied the electoral process’.

“I have received the notice based on what I have written in Saamana. We respect the EC and I will respond to the notice and clarify my stand in the time provided,” Mr Raut told a news agency.

Kanhaiya Kumar who is the former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s student union, is contesting the upcoming Lok Sabha polls from Begusarai in Bihar.