Priyanka Gandhi Vadra

Two complaint cases were filed against Priyanka Gandhi in Patna and Darbhanga accusing her of using derogatory language against the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, Narendra Modi.

BJP leaders Surajnandan Kushwaha and Arjun Sahni filed the cases in Patna and Darbhanga courts respectively. The cases were filed on the reported speech of Priyanka in which she allegedly used the word “neech” against Modi.

BJP general secretary Kushwaha on Wednesday filed a complaint petition in the chief judicial magistrate court against Priyanka, the daughter of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who on May 5 in Amethi accused Modi of indulging in “neech rajniti” and he, in turn, had charged her with making a casteist slur as he came from a lower caste.

The petition will be heard on Thursday. It has been stated in the complaint petition that the statement made by Priyanka was derogatory and amounts to an act prejudicial to maintaining harmony.

The president of fishermen’s cell of Bihar BJP, Arjun Sahani, on Wednesday lodged a separate complaint case against Priyanka in the court of the chief judicial magistrate of Darbhanga, Surendra Kumar Pandey. Sahani alleged that Priyanka used abusive language against the party’s prime ministerial candidate. He also referred to Priyanka’s May 5 speech in Amethi.

Sahani’s counsel Birendra Nath Srivastava said: “The complaint case was filed because the word ‘neech’ has humiliated the BJP party workers and its supporters.”

He added: “The complaint was lodged in the court of the CJM under sections 153(A) (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language etc. and doing acts prejudicial for maintaining social harmony), 153(B) (imputation, assertions, prejudicial to national integrity), 500 (punishment for defamation), and 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Indian Penal Code.”

Sahani said that the Nehru-Gandhi scion used a language that hurt the sentiments of BJP workers because “Modiji is striving to restructure the condition of the deprived section of society”.