TNN | Apr 13, 2014, 01.17 AM IST

 

 Modi chalisa

 

CHENNAI: Chief election commissioner V S Sampath on Saturday said the commission would look into the complaint filed by Congress seeking disqualification of BJP‘s Prime Ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi for not mentioning his marital status in the affidavits filed in past elections.

“The commission has received a complaint. There are judgments of the Supreme Court in such cases. The complaint will be examined in the light of the relevant provisions of law and Supreme Court judgment,” Sampath said when asked whether hiding marital status would attract disqualification. The commission was in Chennai to review poll preparedness with the government officials and representatives of recognized political parties in the state.

Union minister Kapil Sibal had approached the commission on Friday stating that Modi had given wrong information in his affidavits until 2012 and demanded that the election panel take action against him. Taking a jibe at the BJP leader for his commitment on women’s empowerment, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, during an election rally in Jammu on Friday, said it took several elections for BJP’s prime ministerial candidate to even declare his wife’s name in the affidavit.

Expressing grave concern over the inflammatory and provocative speeches by leaders in the run-up to the general elections, Sampath said the commission was seized of the issue. “We have communicated to all state governments about the need for filing FIR in every case of hate speech inciting communal feeling,” said Sampath. Just filing FIR was not sufficient. It should be followed up by action, he said.

Reacting to the inflammatory speeches of SP leader Azam Khan and BJP general secretary Amit Shah in Uttar Pradesh, the commission had on Friday told the UP government not to give permission to the two to hold public meetings till the elections were over.

He refuted NCP chief Sharad Pawar‘s charge that the commission’s strict vigil on movement of cash was nothing short of harassment of the trading community. “Any person who is carrying cash with adequate document, in which he can explain the source of money and purpose for which he is carrying will be let off,” he said. “The intention of the commission is not to harass innocent citizens. But at the same time, we cannot allow unbridled use of money power to influence the outcome of elections,” he added.

 

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