EC Censures BJP Candidate Abhijit Gangopadhyay Over Remark On Mamata Banerjee; Bars From Campaigning

Taking action against BJP Tamluk candidate Abhijit Gangopadhyay for violating the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), the Election Commission (EC) today censured the BJP leader. The Commission also debarred the BJP candidate from campaigning for 24 hours, starting at 5 Pm on May 21.

The poll body, acting on the TMC complaint, cited “derogatory remarks against West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee” for the action against the BJP candidate.

Addressing a rally in Purba Medinipur’s Haldia on May 14. The former Calcutta high court judge had remarked, “Today, the Trinamool says everything is a lie. Rekha Patra (one of the protesters and the BJP”s Basirhat candidate) was bought for Rs 2,000. Mamata Banerjee, how much are you being sold for? One gives you Rs 8 lakh and gets a job; one gives you Rs 10 lakh and ration vanishes… Why is your rate Rs 10 lakh? Is it because you get your makeup done by Keya Seth (a Kolkata-based beautician)? …,” the Indian Express reports.

The BJP candidate had also said that he wonders if Mamata Banerjee is a woman. “How can a woman make such a comment about another woman (Patra), which we can’t understand? Is Mamata Banerjee even a woman? I wonder sometimes,” the Indian Express reports as Abhijit Gangopadhyay said in the rally.

Many TMC leaders had strongly condemned the BJP candidate”s statement, and the party also complained to the Election Commission against the BJP candidate.  Examining the comment, the EC had called it as “improper, injudicious, and beyond dignity in every sense of the term.” The poll authority had also issued a show-cause notice to Abhijit Gangopadhyay on Friday.

However, the Commission, in its order today, further alerted the BJP leader to remain careful in his public utterances during the period of the MCC.

The Tamluk seat in West Bengal, from which the Gangopadhyay is contesting, will cast the votes on May 25 in the sixth phase of Lok Sabha elections.