The Election Commission of India (ECI) Tuesday directed X to take off “objectionable post” of the BJP’s Karnataka unit from its platform, taking a serious note of the refusal of microblogging website of not acting on the same request made earlier by Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) of Karnataka.
The ECI has now directed X to take down with ‘immediate effect’ the objectional post by theBJP’s state unit. On May 4, an animated video on X showed Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, targetting the party over the reservation row.
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The 17-second clip, captioned “Beware.. Beware.. Beware..!” is in Kannada. Congress had filed a complaint to the EC on May 5, alleging that BJP Karnataka wanted to “provoke rioting and promote enmity”. This prompted the CEO of Karnataka to ask BJP Karnataka to remove the post from its X handle. The BJP state unit, however, did not budge on that.
A case against BJP national president JP Nadda, IT cell head Amit Malviya and state president BY Vijayendra, under sections 125 and 505 (2) of the Indian Penal Code was registered by the High Grounds police in Bengaluru.