The Election Commission has served a notice to Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia for sharing a tweet on the religion of his party’s East Delhi candidate, Atishi Marlena.
East Delhi Returning Officer K Mahesh sent a notice to Sisodia over alleged violation of Model Code of Conduct regarding his tweet posted on 27 April. He’s been asked to submit his response by 5 pm on Wednesday.
Sisodia’s controversial tweet had read, “I am pained that the BJP and the Congress together have been spreading lies about the religion of our East Delhi candidate Atishi. Dear people from the BJP and the Congress. Listen to me. Her full name is Atishi Singh. She is a Rajput. Pure warrior class. She is the queen of Jhansi. Be careful. Not only will she win, she will create history also.”
मुझे दुःख है कि बीजेपी और कांग्रेस मिलकर हमारी पूर्वी दिल्ली की प्रत्याशी @AtishiAAP के धर्म को लेकर झूँठ फैला रहे है.
बीजेपी और कांग्रेस वालो! जान लो- ‘आतिशी सिंह’ है उसका पूरा नाम. राजपूतानी है. पक्की क्षत्राणी…झाँसी की रानी है. बच के रहना. जीतेगी भी और इतिहास भी बनाएगी.
— Manish Sisodia (@msisodia) April 27, 2019
Sisodia was reacting to a Congress leader allegation that Atishi was a Jew and Muslims should not vote for her.
In his notice to Sisodia, Mahesh, who is also the East Delhi DM, wrote, “And whereas the said tweet also appears to be in violation of Point (1) of the Annexture 1 of the Manual on Model Code of Conduct pertaining to General Conduct (Page number 161) which states that No party or candidate shall include in in any activity which may aggravateexisting differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic.”
Delhi has seven Lok Sabha seats and all seats will go to polls on 12 May. The counting will take place on 23 May.