Milind Deora censured over poll code violation

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Monday censured Congress leader Milind Deora, who is contesting Lok Sabha poll from South Mumbai, for allegedly making an appeal to voters along communal lines during an April 2 speech at Mumbai’s Zaveri Bazaar.
Finding him guilty of violating provisions of the model code of conduct that restrain candidates and party leaders from indulging in activities that aggravate communal tension and from issuing appeals to communal feelings for securing votes, EC warned him to be more careful with his utterances in the future.
Polling in Mumbai and the entire state of Maharashtra got over on April 29.
EC had issued a showcause notice to Deora on April 15 for his remarks. The complaint to EC accused him of trying create discontent in the Jain community by alleging that Shiv Sena had insulted Jains by cooking meat outside a Jain temple during Paryushana festival. “Remember you have to teach them a lesson through your votes,” he was quoted as saying.
Deora later denied the charges. In a statement, he said, “At the outset, I deny the baseless, irresponsible and misleading allegations made in the complaints. Nothing contained in the letter and/or the complaints shall be deemed admitted by me for the want of non-traverse or specific denial."
He added, “Without prejudice to my rights and contentions, I say that I filed my nomination as a candidate of the INC for contesting election to the Lok Sabha from 31-Mumbai South Constituency on April 8, 2019 at about 2:00pm. It is pertinent to note that the complaints pertain to an alleged incident of April 2, 2019”.
EC has rejected this defence as model code has been in force since March 10 and applied to all political party leaders.