Cong moves EC, seeks dropping of MCC violation charges against

Congress today gave a representation to Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha stressing that the "hate speech" made by its Saharanpur nominee Imran Masood was six-month old, "so does not amount to violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC)".
Chairman of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee's communication department Satyadev Tripathi said in the representation that Masood became a member of the party only on March 8 this year, whereas the speech was made on September 18, 2013.
Pointing out that since the Model Code of Conduct came into effect on March 5 this year and a speech prior to it does not come under its ambit, the Congress appealed to the poll body to issue directives to abort the charges of poll code violation against Masood.

In the speech, which has gone viral on internet, Masood allegedly threatened to "chop" BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi "into pieces".
The speech was given by Masood as leader of Samajwadi Party but the administration had kept their eyes and ears closed for long and no action was taken against him, Tripathi said, alleging that no action was taken because he then belonged to the ruling party.
Tripathi also asked BJP why it did not raise the matter then and accused the party of trying to take political advantage ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. He alleged that BJP had earlier promoted its leader Varun Gandhi, who is accused of similar charges.