Day after Shah drops Pak bomb, a grand alliance-NDA war in EC court

NEW DELHI: The BJP and grand alliance reached the EC on Friday to complain against each other over “communal campaigning”. This was a day after Amit Shah told a rally that an NDA defeat would be celebrated with firecrackers in Pakistan. The BJP delegation reached the EC ahead of opponents anticipating that the grand alliance would approach the poll panel over Shah’s speech.The grand alliance termed the speech “inflammatory”. BJP countered, citing the remarks of Lalu, Rahul Gandhi and Nitish Kumar in their reaction to the fi re- crackers comment. The Mahagathbandhan did not just condemn Shah’s remark, but JD(U) and Congress insisted that the BJP chief be banned from entering Bihar till the polls got over.READ ALSO:BJP’s anti-JD(U) ads on quota & terror banned“A case should be registered against Shah. He should be debarred from entering Bihar till the poll process is over… He was earlier debarred from entering Gujarat by the courts,” JD(U) general secretary K C Tyagi said.Tyagi, with Congress’s Randeep Surjewala, submitted a memorandum to chief election commissioner Nasim Zaidi, accusing BJP of “vitiating” the electoral process by “promoting communal tension”. CPM’s Sitaram Yechury also demanded that EC take action against Shah.Yechury said Shah’s remarks were a “clear violation” of EC’s model code and underscored BJP’s “extreme desperation and frustration”. He predicted a “Delhi-like” debacle for NDA in Bihar.Line of no control: Reports suggest close fight in Bihar elections. (Toon by Sandeep Adhwaryu)In Patna, Lalu alleged Shah was trying to inject “poison of communalism” in the next two phases in which the minority population is sizeable in most constituencies.With its party chief drawing flak, BJP too moved EC against the grand alliance, whose leaders, it said, were trying to polarise voters on communal lines and urged the poll body to take “stringent action”.The BJP delegation led by Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi gave a memorandum to EC naming Rahul Gandhi, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad, accusing them of making statements to polarise voters. BJP alleged that Lalu had been using inappropriate language for Modi and Shah. Shah had been called a “cannibal”. Lalu had described Modi as a “vampire”, it alleged.After the meeting, Naqvi said the “syndicate of corruption and bad governance” in Bihar was trying to hide their “stain of corruption” through the “chaos of communalism”. Facing defeat, the grand alliance was “attacking nationalists while lauding anarchy.”Defending Shah, BJP secretary Siddharth Nath Singh said, “Amit Shahji’s comments aren’t unfounded. Two years back Yasin Bhatkal was arrested. He is the IM co-founder. Nitish didn’t want to take Bhatkal into custody. Kumar didn’t want to acknowledge the arrest had happened in Bihar. Now what kind of politics is this?”