New Delhi, April 3: The Election Commission on Wednesday issued a notice to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, for his controversial remark on the Indian force while addressing a rally in Ghaziabad last week. For the "Modi ki Sena" remark, the polling body has asked the UP CM to furnish a reply by April 5.

The direction to Yogi to submit a reply comes two days after the EC asked Uttar Pradesh's Chief Electoral Officer to submit a report into the incident. Complying with the order, CEO Lakku Venkateshwarlu asked the Commission officials to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the matter. Are All Political Parties Blatantly Disrespecting Model Code of Conduct?

Yogi, while targeting the Opposition for allegedly being soft against terrorism and Pakistan, said, "Congress ke log aatankvadiyon ko biryani khilate the aur Modi ji ki sena aatankvadiyon ko goli aur gola deti hai (Congress fed terrorists biryani while Modi’s army feeds them bullets and bombs)".

The remark rattled the Opposition, which demanded the polling body to act against Yogi for "politicising" the operations of the Army.

Congress demanded the Election Commission to take action against the UP Chief Minister for violating the Model Code of Conduct -- which bars the use of government machinery, which includes the armed forces, for attempting to influence the voting pattern.

"This is an insult to our armed forces. They are India’s armed forces, not the private army of Prachaar Mantri. Adityanath must apologise," said Congress' spokesperson Priyanka Chaturvedi.

Watch Video of Yogi Adityanath's 'Modi Ki Sena' Remark:

As soon as the Model Code of Conduct was imposed, on March 10, the Election Commission had issued a directive to all political parties barring them from the use of armed forces' posters or photos for poll campaigning.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 03, 2019 10:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).