Five-member TMC delegation meets CEC over 'harassment' of Saket Gokhale
New Delhi, (PTI): A five-member TMC parliamentary delegation met the chief election commissioner on Monday and registered their protest against the arrest of party spokesperson Saket Gokhale by the Gujarat Police.
"The delegation met the CEC over the harassment and torture of our national spokesperson. We told him that he was arrested once in Ahmedabad and a case was also lodged against him in Morbi while the model code of conduct was in force.
"We also said that he has been wrongly charged under Section 125 (of the Representation of the People Act) which is not attracted by what he tweeted. So, this is a case of harassment," said TMC MP Saugata Ray after the meeting.
He asked why the section was not raised when Chief Minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma reportedly "preached and fanned communalism and hatred towards religious minorities while campaigning in the recently held assembly election in Gujarat" or against Paresh Rawal, former MP of the BJP, who "preached hatred against the Bengali community while campaigning in the run-up of Gujarat assembly election".
Gokhale had on December 1 tweeted a news clipping about information purportedly obtained through a Right to Information application, claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Morbi after the bridge collapse cost Rs 30 crore.
Soon after, the Press Information Bureau tweeted a 'fact check', saying the information was fake. An FIR was registered against Gokhale on charges of forgery and printing defamatory content, and he was subsequently arrested twice.
The TMC delegation which met the CEC also included Derek O'Brien, Kalyan Banerjee, Sukhendu Sekhar Ray and Mausam Noor.
"We have strongly registered our protect against this and the CEC promised us he will ask for a report and take necessary action," Saugata Ray said.
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Kejriwal resorting to 'vendetta politics', says BJP after MP Sandeep Pathak booked
New Delhi (PTI): The BJP on Saturday accused Aam Aadmi Party's national convenor Arvind Kejriwal of vendetta politics after Punjab Police booked Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak, who recently defected to the BJP.
In an X post, BJP national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla claimed that Kejriwal is misusing the Punjab Police to settle political scores, and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has become a party to it.
"Two FIRs have been filed against Sandeep Pathak, who until recently was in the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) as a Rajya Sabha MP and general secretary (organisation). What is baffling is the shameless, brazen vendetta politics being pursued by Arvind Kejriwal, with Bhagwant Mann complicit in it," Poonawalla said.
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"It is clear this has been done out of vendetta politics by Kejriwal, who is extremely vengeful and vindictive, and misuses the Punjab Police to pursue such political vendetta," he alleged.
Questioning the timing of the FIRs, Poonawalla said, "If these cases existed from the beginning, why were FIRs not filed earlier? If he was corrupt, why was he kept in the party for so long, especially when he was the general secretary (organisation)? Has any new material surfaced in the last few days, or has the alleged corruption occurred only now?"
He alleged that Kejriwal has an "old habit" of targeting political opponents and dissenters.
"We have seen how he has used the police against rivals, including Congress leaders. This is his old habit," Poonawalla said, referring to the withdrawal of Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh's security.
Poonawalla claimed that several leaders who had left AAP over the years, including Yogendra Yadav, Mayank Gandhi, Ashish Khetan, Ashutosh and Alka Lamba, were "hounded".
He accused the party of failing to introspect.
"Instead of introspecting on how they have changed -- from Anna to Lalu, from Lokpal to corruption -- they are indulging in vendetta politics, trying to victimise people using the strong arm of the law. This reflects an Emergency-like mindset and a dictatorial, Hitlerian mindset," he said.
According to sources, two FIRs have been lodged against Pathak under non-bailable sections.
No further details about the FIRs have been disclosed yet.
On April 24, the AAP suffered a jolt when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs quit, alleging that Arvind Kejriwal's party has strayed from its principles, values and core morals.
Of the seven MPs -- who were Pathak, Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney and Swati Maliwal -- six were from Punjab.
Later, Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan officially accepted their merger with the BJP, reducing AAP's strength in the Upper House to three.
