BJP to meet EC over CD row

NEW DELHI: Pushed to the defensive by its state unit for bringing out a controversial CD ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections, central BJP leaders will meet the Election Commission on Friday to file their reply to its notice over the video.

"We are meeting the Election Commission on Friday to file our reply," BJP vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, who will lead the delegation to the EC, said.

FIRs have been registered against party leaders Rajnath Singh, Lalji Tandon and others on direction of the EC over complaints that the CD was designed to stir communal passions.

Citing the model code of conduct, the Commission said it has been brought to its notice that leaders and workers of the BJP released, displayed and distributed the CD containing "inflammatory campaign material derogatory to the sentiments of certain community".

The CD could have the effect of 'aggravating existing differences or creating mutual hatred or causing tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic' and contained 'an appeal to caste or communal feelings for securing votes'.