30 Mar :The EC has slapped a notice on Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav for his alleged threatening remarks against the DM of Mainpuri from where he is contesting the LS polls in Uttar Pradesh saying such action were "obstacles" in conduct of free and fair polls.
In its notice on Monday, the Election Commission also said "such actions affect the morale of the district election machinery" involved in the conduct of elections.
The Commission asked Yadav to explain by 3rd April why action should not be taken against him for threatening the District Magistrate-cum-Returning Officer Ministhy Dileep, failing which the Commission would take further action without any further notice.
The 35-year-old DM, who hails from Kerala, is reported to have said that the SP chief had threatened and insulted her for ordering cancellation of several arms licenses in the district. Yadav denied having threatened her.
Yadav had also allegedly warned that he would register a complaint with the EC against the DM whom he accused of losing her sense of proportion and not being able to differentiate between a criminal and a common man.
He had also suggested that she should get her "head checked" and asked her to mend ways within a week.However, Yadav had later said he always respected women and gave them proper respect and place in the party.
EC takes note Chidambaram’s comments on Modi
The Election Commission is looking into certain comments made by Home Minister P Chidambaram against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at a press conference held at the Press Information Bureau (PIB) in New Delhi.
The issue was discussed in the Commission on Monday to find out whether Chidambaram made those remarks while addressing a press conference in PIB on the issue of shifting of IPL outside India, EC sources said.
Taking on Modi, who had described the shifting of the IPL as a "national shame", the Home Minister had said on 23rd March that most people in India thought that the Gujarat communal riots of 2002 were a "national shame".
"What is a national shame? Most people in India think that the Gujarat communal riots in 2002 were a national shame. That the Supreme Court should have thought it fit to reject the investigations conducted by the Gujarat Police and to constitute an SIT to re-investigate 14 cases is a matter which brought shame to the fair name of Gujarat," Chidambaram had said.
"When the SIT report filed before the Supreme Court is unveiled I have no doubt it will expose the inability of the Gujarat government in preventing the horrific incidents and its ineptitude in bringing to justice the perpetrators of the crimes," he had said.