BJP's PM candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi addresses the media after casting his vote at a polling station in Ahmedabad on Wednesday
has said he will not forget April 30, 2014, the day an FIR or first information report was lodged against him, the first ever.
The BJP's prime ministerial candidate said at a rally in Tirupati last evening, "In my entire life, not even a single FIR has been registered against me, not even for driving a scooter on the wrong side or for wrong parking. Suddenly today when I landed here I came to know that an FIR has been registered against me... I will never forget April 30."
On Wednesday, the Gujarat police filed an FIR against the state's chief minister on the order of the Election Commission, which said that Mr Modi had broken the law by campaigning in a polling area as the seventh phase of the general elections were being held around the country.
(Modi intended to influence voters, says furious Election Commission)Mr Modi had, after casting his vote, walked out of the Ranip polling station in Ahmedabad and then interacted with the waiting media, holding up his inked finger along with the BJP's lotus symbol.
(Narendra Modi takes a selfie after voting in Ahmedabad)For the entire press interaction, as he promised the defeat of the rival Congress, Mr Modi displayed the lotus.
"It is evident from Modi's tone and tenor that he made a political speech. He intended, calculated to influence voting today," the Election Commission observed.
(Read: Election Commission's notice against Narendra Modi)Mr Modi said on Wednesday evening, "If someone is threatened with a knife an FIR is lodged, all I did was show everyone a lotus." He also said that the FIR showed "how shaken the Congress is."
(Read more...)The Congress had complained to the Election Commission immediately after Mr Modi's press interaction. Its spokesperson Shakeel Ahmed later accused Mr Modi of being "a serial offender."
(Read) His party had earlier objected to the release of the BJP manifesto on April 7, when voting in the nine-phase general election began.
The BJP has contended that yesterday's speech was not an organised press conference. The Crime Branch has been tasked to determine if that is correct.