KCR Barred From Campaigning For "Derogatory" Remarks Against Congress

Former Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR, has been was banned by the Election Commission today from campaigning for 48 hours for his "derogatory" statements against the Congress. The 48-hour ban comes into force at 8 pm this evening.

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president has been barred from holding any public meetings, public processions, public rallies, shows and interviews, and public utterances in media in connection with the ongoing election for two days, said the Election Commission, "strongly condemning his impugned statements".

The Congress had complained to the election panel on April 6 about certain "objectionable" remarks issued by KCR at a press meet in Telangana's Sircilla town a day earlier.

The commission had earlier issued a show-cause notice to KCR over the alleged remarks. Responding to the notice on April 23, the former Chief Minister, however, denied the charge. He pointed out that the meaning of his original statement has been lost in translation: "The officers in charge of election in Telangana and Sircilla are not Telugu people and they hardly understand the local dialect of Telugu."

He also accused the Congress of picking some sentences from his press conference out of context. "The English translation of the sentences is not correct and twisted," he said.

KCR insisted that he had confined his criticism to the policies and programmes of the Congress and that he had not gone into personal aspects of any Congress leader as the Election Commission said.

After going through the content of the Congress complaint and KCR's reply, the commission found that the BRS chief "has violated the provisions of the Model Code of Conduct".

K Chandrashekar Rao is the second politician to be banned from campaigning for 48 hours after Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.