The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in the dock for its ‘beef’ poll ad ahead of the last phase of Bihar Assembly polls, defended itself on Wednesday, saying that there was ‘nothing wrong’ in the adverts.
Bihar BJP chief Sushil Kumar Modi said, “There is nothing wrong in our advertisement on beef issue and asking the chief minister to break his silence on controversial remarks made by the RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, his colleague Raghuvansh Prasad Singh and Karnataka chief minister S Siddaramaiah,”
“As far as the timing goes, it is our prerogative as to when we should put out any advertisement,” he add.
Earlier today, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) moved the Election Commission for the ads which feature a woman hugging a cow. The ads then goes on to list three comments by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and others, with the word beef highlighted in each of the statements.
In response, the poll watchdog has directed political parties not to publish ads in newspapers tomorrow without its approval in Bihar. This is historical as the EC has censored polls ads for the first time in his history. Bihar goes to polls tomorrow in the fifth and final phase, which will see voting in 57 constituencies.
The election commission has ordered a FIR against the four newspapers who carried the controversial ad.