On October 12, a response was received by Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP) from the ECI in regards to their complaint against senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya. Vijayvargiya is an electoral candidate from Indore Assembly Constituency No. 1. On October 5, a video of his had surfaced on ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter) wherein he could be seen and heard delivering a speech in Indore and offering monetary benefits of Rs 51,000 to the polling booth chairman for no votes given to the opposition Congress party.
As per the response received by the ECI, a complaint has been raised by the commission with the concerned officers regarding the impugned speech highlighted in CJP’s complaint. It has further been provided that the commission has also personally forwarded the email to the corned officer for a quick response. A further detailed reply from concerned officers/department is now awaited.
It is essential to note that through the said complaint, it had been highlighted that the speech made by Vijayvargiya amounts to the offence of “corrupt practices” and stands in violation of Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951. CJP had demanded that strict action be taken against Vijayvargiya for his serious violations and that he should be directed to issue an unconditional public apology as well as a retraction for his utterances. CJP had further urged that the Commission issues a notice to the state and national party in chief of the BJP as this conduct of one of its own elected representatives puts a responsibility on any party that participates in elections held under the mandate of the Indian Constitution to honour and follow its mandate as laid down in both the Preamble and Fundamental Rights (Chapter III).
The full complaint can be read here:
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