EC bans Surjewala from campaigning for 48 hours over remark against Hema Malini

The Election Commission on Tuesday barred Congress MP Randeep Singh Surjewala from campaigning for 48 hours over his alleged remark against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Hema Malini.The poll panel’s decision comes after it had issued show cause notices to both Surjewala and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge over the MP’s remark against the BJP MP from Mathura.In a video shared by the BJP on social media, Surjewala was heard saying, “Why people elect their MLAs/MPs? So that they (MLAs/MPs) can raise the public’s voice. It’s not like Hema Malini, who was elected to lick.”The alleged remark kicked up a storm in the poll season, with the BJP calling it a ‘new low to disrespect and demean the dignity of women’. ALSO READ: Hema Malini reacts to Surjewala’s ‘lick’ comment: ‘They target me because…’The Election Commission had sought reply from Surjewala by April 9. According to the poll panel, the Congress leader claimed that the “video cited by the complainant allegedly containing unforesaid utterances was a doctored video.”Earlier, Surjewala had accused the BJP of ‘distorting’ the clip, saying on X,”Watch the full clip. What I said was that we have great respect for Hema Malini ji, who is married to Dharmendra ji, and, therefore, is our daughter-in-law.”“All I said was that in public life, everyone (public representatives) must be accountable to the people…be it (Haryana CM) Nayab Singh Saini, or (former CM) Manohar Lal Khattar, or myself. I did not intend to insult Hema Malini ji, or offend anyone. The BJP itself is anti-women, and spreads lies conveniently,” he had said. In its order, the poll panel wrote,”The Commission is in receipt of the report of DEO Kaithal wherein it is stated that the aforesaid objectionable utterances were made during a speech given by Sh. Randeep Singh Surjewala on 31-03-2024 at Faral village of Pundri assembly constituency in the Kaithal district and the entire speech was videographed by the video surveillance team deployed by the DEO.”The poll panel said it had also examined the video of the speech submitted by the DEO and was convinced that Surjewala made the statement and violated the Model Code of Conduct.