On Monday, April 1, Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) approached Election Commission of India (ECI) demanding action against TMC leader Pijush Panda for his offensive casteist remarks against PM Modi. BJP asked ECI to ban the controversial TMC leader from campaigning for the Lok Sabha elections following his casteist remark against PM Modi during a rally in Bengal.
In its complaint, the BJP said that the remarks by the TMC leader were serious violations of provisions of the Indian Penal Code, Representation of People Act, 1951 and Model Code of Conduct.
“The TMC leader Piyush Panda has taken objectionable recourse to demean the OBC community. He has made a public statement that polishing shoes is a befitting job for the members of the OBC community. Since he made this unacceptable statement in a public rally, thus, it cannot be construed as an isolated incident. The TMC has given instructions to its leaders to unleash highly derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the OBC community,” the complaint said.
Earlier, TMC leader Pijush Panda abused PM Modi during a political rally with casteist slurs and asked, “How can a son of ‘Teli’ inaugurate Ram Mandir”. The TMC leader was heard making casteist slurs against Modi in a video shared by the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in West Bengal Suvendu Adhikari.
Taking to X, senior BJP leader Adhikari lambasted the TMC leader for hurling casteist remarks about PM Modi and also shared the video of an excerpt from the TMC leader’s controversial address.
In the video, Pijush Panda also made deranging attacks on PM Modi and called him an “absolute fraud” and “a madman”, alleging that all his certificates are computerised even when computers didn’t exist at that time. Notably, earlier, the Gujarat High Court had refused to grant relief to AAP National Convenor and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal for making defamatory claims about PM Modi’s degree row.
Further, the TMC leader Pijush Panda attacked PM Modi for inaugurating Ram Mandir despite being an OBC from Teli caste, saying only Brahmins can do so. He also suggested that OBCs like PM Modi should do the job of polishing shoes, saying that with a ‘Teli’ inaugurating Ram Mandir, Brahmins like himself will need to polish shoes.
The BJP delegation comprising Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri and party’s national general secretary Arun Kumar visited the ECI in Delhi and also lodged a complaint against TMC’s social media in-charge Debganshu Bhattacharya accusing him of posting on X (formerly Twitter) personal details of Rekha Patra, the BJP candidate from Basirhat Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal.
