MUZAFFARNAGAR: The BJP's Miranpur candidate for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls has been booked for allegedly giving an inflammatory speech at an election meeting and violating EC guidelines on physical campaigning, police said on Monday.
Pershant Gujjar and his 40 supporters have also been booked for holding the meeting without permission on Sunday, Kakroli Station House Officer (SHO) Sunil Sharma said.
He said that the meeting took place despite the Election Commission (EC) banning all kinds of physical poll public meetings and rallies in view of the Covid situation.
Gujjar, in a video clip, is heard appealing to people in Chorawala village to support him in the elections as the BJP is of Hindus and the opposition Samajwadi Party (SP) is a Muslims' party.
Sharma said Gujjar and his supporters were booked after investigation of the video, which has gone viral on social media.
The election meeting, which Gujjar is addressing, was organised without the permission of district authorities and in violation of EC guidelines, he said.
Gujjar and his 40 supporters have been charged under Section 125 (promoting enmity between classes in connection with election) of the the Representation of the People Act, Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act and Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act, Sharma said.
The SHO said that they also face Indian Penal Code sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 269 and 270 which pertain to malignantly, unlawfully or negligently doing any act which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe to be, likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life.
The other IPC sections imposed are 505(2) (whoever commits an offence in any place of worship or in any assembly engaged in the performance of religious worship) and 171 (offence related to not belonging to a certain class of public servants, wears any garb or carries any token resembling any garb or token used by that class of public servants), the Sharma said.
The Miranpur assembly constituency goes to polls on February 10 in the first of the seven-phase Uttar Pradesh elections.
Two former MLAs of the Samajwadi Party and their hundreds of supporters were booked for allegedly violating the model code of conduct (MCC) for elections and the COVID-19 protocol in this district, police said on Sunday.
Additional Superintendent of Police Kunwar Gyananjay Singh said the first case was registered at Payagpur police station against former Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA Mukesh Srivastava and 400-450 others for campaigning without prior permission, and for violation of Covid norms.
A case was lodged under sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Epidemic Act.
A jeep was also seized under the Motor Vehicles Act.
In the second matter, a case was registered against former SP MLA Ramtej Yadav and 25-30 of his supporters for campaigning without prior permission, and for violation of COVID-19 norms, Singh said.
He added that action has been initiated in both the cases.
Bahraich goes to polls in the fifth phase on February 27.
Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav, party chief Akhilesh Yadav and new entrant to the party Swami Prasad Maurya are among its 30 star campaigners for the first phase of the Uttar Pradesh assembly election.
The other prominent star campaigners are national vice-president Kiranmay Nanda, principal general secretary Ramgopal Yadav, Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan, the party's Uttar Pradesh unit chief Naresh Uttam Patel, leader of opposition in the Assembly Ramgobind Chaudhary.
The party's national executive member Javed Ali Khan and Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha president Mohammad Fahad have also been named as star campaigners.
Dara Singh Chauhan and Dharam Singh Saini, who quit as ministers and from the BJP to join the SP, are not in the list of 30 star campaigners.
Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council Ahmed Hasan and the party's Maharashtra unit chief Abu Asim Azmi are not in the list.
Senior party leader Azam Khan who is lodged in jail too is not in the list.
In the first of the seven phases, polling will be held in 58 assembly constituencies spread over 11 districts on February 10.
The districts which are going to poll in the first phase are Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Hapur, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Mathura and Agra.
The final-phase polling will be on March 7 and the results will be declared on March 10.