BJP MP Yogi Adityanath (centre) addresses media in Lucknow on Wednesday. (Press Trust of India Photo)
A police case or FIR should be filed against the BJP's Yogi Adityanath for allegedly promoting religious enmity, the Election Commission said today. The BJP's star campaigner in Uttar Pradesh delivered a speech recently designed to incite communal tension, the Commission has found. It has also written to the controversial leader, warning him to be careful.
Adityanath, a senior priest and a 42-year-old law-maker from Uttar Pradesh, was also listed today along with other leaders from his party in another FIR for defying the state government to hold a rally in Lucknow on Wednesday evening.
Adityanath said that he went ahead with the public meeting despite being refused permission by local officials "to fight against the UP government's dictatorship and undemocratic ways." The rally has been filmed and will be scrutinized by the Election Commission to determine what action should be taken next.
On Saturday, Uttar Pradesh will hold by-elections for eleven assembly seats and one parliamentary constituency. Adityanath has also questioned the authenticity of a video that appeared online a few weeks ago that shows him making hate remarks against Muslims
In the national election in May, the BJP won 71 of the 80 parliamentary seats in Uttar Pradesh.
Critics claim the outstanding result was accomplished by Amit Shah through a strategy pivoted on stirring communal tensions for electoral advantage. Mr Shah, a top aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and now the BJP president, has denied those charges.
Yesterday, he was charge-sheeted by the UP police for allegedly making a hate speech ahead of the national elections in Muzaffarnagar, which was seared by deadly Hindu-Muslim riots in September.
In his Independence Day speech, the Prime Minister called for an end to communal violence.
But ahead of the by-elections, local BJP leaders have been accused of trying to polarize voters by focusing on forced conversions and "love jihad" - what they describe as an Islamist strategy to convert Hindu women through seduction, marriage and money.