Punjab Polls | BJP urges EC to bar Navjot Singh Sidhu from campaigning

Asked the about the performance of the Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government, Navjot Singh Sidhu said “there was scope for improvement”

The BJP on Monday urged the Election Commission to ban Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu from campaigning in the ongoing assembly polls and register a criminal case against him and his party, alleging that he was promoting hatred and division in the society with his comments.

A BJP delegation, including Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, met the EC with a memorandum and claimed that Sidhu had insulted Brahmins with a "derogatory" reference with an aim to divide Punjabis.

Sidhu had also recently made an appeal to Muslims in the state that their votes should not be divided, the BJP noted. Naqvi said the Congress leader's comments are in violation of the Model Code of Conduct and the Indian Penal Code as well.

He also accused opposition parties in Uttar Pradesh of trying to hinder Muslim women from voting and asked the EC to look into it. The BJP memorandum urged the EC to also censure and warn the Indian National Congress for promoting hatred and division by "allowing and acquiescing in the sinister designs" of Sidhu.

It said, "In a state that has suffered due to secessionist elements and militancy in no distant past and which is just about emerging from ill-effects thereof, a crass derogation of the one particular caste amongst Hindus is an ugly attempt to divide the people of the state of Punjab, which being a border state has always been a target of sinister incursions from across the border. Such trends, however preliminary, must not be ignored."