Sources said the Chief Electoral Officer of UP had yesterday taken cognisance of Shah's statement and sought the CD along with a detailed report from the district authorities. Shah is not a candidate for the Lok Sabha polls.
The statement has been sent to the Nirvachan Sadan—the headquarters of the Election Commission in Delhi, they said. The EC is likely to take a call on the issue at its meeting tomorrow, the sources said.
Union Minister and Congress leader Beni Prasad Verma alleged that SP and BJP were hand in glove with each other in communalising elections and sought a “ban” by the Election Commission on campaigning by Modi and Shah in UP.
Condemning the remarks, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi rejected BJP's defence of it as “flagrant crude defence and justification of communalism” and accused it of mastering the art of “hypocrisy”.
Shah triggered a controversy with his comment that the general elections, especially in western UP, is “an election for honour. It is an election to take revenge for the insult. It is an election to teach a lesson to those who have committed injustice.”
