EC bars West Bengal BJP leader for 48 hours over sexually coloured remarks against TMC candidate

After a Supreme Court prod, the Election Commission Friday barred BJP's Nadia district president Mahadev Sarkar from campaigning for 48 hours for making sexually coloured remarks against a TMC candidate.

The ban came into force at 4.00 pm on Friday and would remain in force till April 28 evening, an order issued by the commission said.

The EC's decision came a day after the Supreme Court ordered the poll panel to initiate action based on a complaint filed by TMC candidate Mahua Moitra.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and justices Deepak Gupta and Sanjiv Khanna had on Thursday directed the Election Commission to pass the order "forthwith".

The EC "strongly condemned" and "severely reprimanded" Sarkar for his remarks and said he had violated para 2 of the model code which states that: "Criticism of other political parties, when made, shall be confined to their policies and programme, past record and work. Parties and Candidates shall refrain from criticism of all aspects of private life, not connected with the public activities of the leaders or workers of other parties ..."