BJP does not approve of comments of Mishra, Verma: Prasad
New Delhi: Facing flak over controversial remarks made by some party leaders such as Kapil Mishra, the BJP on Friday disapproved their comments, while asserting the views expressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah should be seen as its stand on the row over amended citizenship law and Delhi violence.
Asked about alleged incendiary comments of Mishra and MP Parvesh Verma, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the home minister has already "clarified" the party's position, and the top BJP brass never considered their comments appropriate.
"They have not approved of their remarks," he said.
"If publicly very senior leaders have disapproved of these statements, I think it means a lot. And the party with its own internal system will surely respond to these situations," Prasad told reporters in answer to questions about why the BJP has not acted against them.
He noted that the police are looking into the comments made by them, and the matter is sub-judice.
The Delhi High Court had on Wednesday expressed "anguish" over the police's failure to register FIRs against some BJP leaders including Mishra and Verma over their alleged hate speeches in connection with the CAA-related violence.
But on Thursday, the court made the Centre a party in the case and gave it four weeks to file a reply to the petition.
While Mishra and Verma made several controversial comments during the Delhi polls inviting Election Commission censure, the former is also accused of making a provocative speech in northeast Delhi before communal riots erupted there.
Though no senior party leader had criticised Mishra for his latest provocation, Shah in an interview after the BJP suffered a humiliating defeat in the Delhi assembly polls had said its leaders should not have made controversial remarks during the campaign.
Asked if the party had suffered due to them, Shah had said it might have.
Prasad also referred to Modi's tweets in which he had made appeal for peace in the national capital, and Shah's statement that Muslims have as much rights in the country as Hindus.
These views should be seen as the BJP's stand, Prasad said.
The BJP leader, however, rejected any comparison between Mishra and AAP councillor Tahir Hussain, saying the latter has been booked in the case for allegedly murdering an Intelligence Bureau official.
The AAP has suspended him from the party.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Surat LS candidate Nilesh Kumbhani whose nomination form was rejected suspended from Congress
Ahmedabad, Apr 25: The Gujarat Congress on Friday suspended from the party for six years its Surat Lok Sabha candidate Nilesh Kumbhani, whose nomination form was rejected over discrepancies leading to the BJP's Mukesh Dalal getting elected unopposed.
A statement from the Congress said the party's disciplinary committee decided to suspend Kumbhani after thorough discussion, adding it had come to the conclusion that the nomination form was rejected due to gross negligence on his part or "in connivance with the BJP".
"To be fair to you we have given time to you to explain your case but instead of coming before the party disciplinary committee you have gone incommunicado. After your form was rejected by the authorities, BJP went ahead and got form of other eight candidates withdrawn. This has deprived people of Surat their voting rights," the Congress disciplinary committee headed by Balu Patel said.
"People of Surat and party workers have become very angry due to your action and are expressing their anger in different ways. The Congress party has decided to suspend you for six years from the party," the press note said.
Kumbhani's nomination form was rejected on April 21 after his three proposers submitted affidavits to the district returning officer claiming the signatures on the document was not theirs.
The nomination form of Suresh Padsala, the Congress' substitute candidate from Surat, was also invalidated on the same grounds.
In his order, Returning Officer Sourabh Pardhi said the three nomination forms submitted by Kumbhani and Padsala were rejected after prima facie discrepancy was found in the signatures of the proposers and they did not appear to be genuine.
Kumbhani, a former corporator from Surat, had unsuccessfully fought the 2022 Assembly polls from Kamrej there.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was elected unopposed from Surat Lok Sabha constituency on April 22 after all other nominees, including one from BSP, withdrew from the fray one by one on the last day of withdrawing papers.
