Uttarakhand polls: EC warns BJP to be more careful over sharing morphed pic of Harish Rawat

New Delhi, Feb 11: The Election Commission (EC) on Friday warned the Uttarakhand BJP to be more careful in the future and advised it to follow all provisions of the poll code after it shared a morphed picture of Congress leader Harish Rawat on Twitter.

The EC had sent a notice to the state BJP after it tweeted a doctored snap of former chief minister Rawat, in which he was shown as a Muslim cleric.

However, the saffron party responded to the EC that it did not intent to neither to violate any provisions of the Model Code of Conduct nor to create any differences between groups on the basis of religion, race, caste and language.

Also, the Uttarakhand BJP informed the EC that the said tweet has been removed from Twitter. However, the EC said it has not found the reply of the Uttarakhand BJP satisfactory. The order noted that an FIR has been lodged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Representation of the People Act in connection with a Facebook post, which "will follow its logical conclusion".

"Now, therefore, the Commission warns the Bharatiya Janata Party, Uttarakhand to be more careful in future and advises to follow all the provisions of Model Code of Conduct and other guidelines of the Commission in letter and spirit," the order read.

The 70-member Uttarakhand Assembly is scheduled to go to polls on February 14 and the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10. PTI