BJP petitions poll panel after Congress makes ‘derogatory’ remarks against candidate Kangana

SHIMLA: The Himachal Pradesh BJP Sunday filed a complaint against the Congress and the Hamirpur Youth Congress Club for allegedly portraying actor and BJP Lok Sabha candidate from Mandi, Kangana Ranaut, in a negative light by using pictures from her films.

The BJP urged the Election Commission to initiate appropriate legal action against them for using objectionable, scandalous and offensive language on social media.

In its complaint to the ECI, with copy to the Himachal chief electoral officer, the saffron party alleged that the Congress has directed its various wings to assassinate the character of Kangana on social media.

The Hamirpur Youth Congress Club has used a picture of Kangana from her artistic pursuits to portray her as a negative character and posted “derogatory double meaning remarks”.

The complaint filed by BJP state media in-charge Karan Nanda cited the repeated instances of alleged serious violations of the provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), 1860; Representation of People Act (RPA), 1951; and the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) by the Congress leaders.

“It is the duty of every artist to portray the character given to him or her as convincingly as they can and every character has its own challenges and requirements but ignoring this aspect, the Congress was repeatedly using Kangana’s artistic pursuits to portray her in a vulgar manner with intentions to demean her as the remarks are not only derogatory and sexually oriented, undermining the dignity of a woman but are also violative of the mandatory guidelines of the Model Code of Conduct,” the complaint added.