The famous Indian cricketer, Gautam Gambhir, who lately turned out into a politician must face action for “holding a political rally without taking permission”, the Election Commission said on Saturday. On Saturday, the Election Commission has asked the East Delhi returning officer to file a case against Gambhir, BJP’s East Delhi Lok Sabha seat candidate, for conducting a rally without any approval.
The Delhi Police has lodged a formal complaint against Gautam Gambhir, for apparently holding a public meeting in Jangpura deprived of previous permission from authorities, officials said.
The complaint was lodged after East Delhi Returning Officer K Mahesh asked police to take immediate action against the cricketer-turned politician for purportedly violating the rules and guidelines.
“We have initiated action against Gautam Gambhir under sections 28/110 of the Delhi Police Act,” Chinmoy Biswal, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast), said.
It’s not even being a long duration in his political career but Gautam Gambhir already has found himself at the middle of a number of controversies. The EC’s order approaches hardly a day after Aam Aadmi Party’s Atishi lodged a criminal complaint against the star cricketer for apparently having two voter ID cards, out of which one from Karol Bagh and an additional from Rajinder Nagar.
She claimed that Gambhir, in his official declaration to the returning officer while filing his nomination had “concealed the information that he is also registered to vote in Karol Bagh, which is punishable under Sec 125A of the Representation of the People Act with up to six months jail time.”
The Delhi court is going to hear the matter of the criminal complaint against Gautam Gambhir on May 1.
Gautam Gambhir, who declared his retirement from cricket in December 2018, has been much spoken about his support to the ruling government at the Centre, and has frequently praised the policies and judgments taken by the BJP.
Gautam Gambhir said, “I came into politics so that I don’t remain one of those people who just sit in air conditioned rooms and share opinions on Twitter.”
Gambhir had joined the BJP on March 22, saying that he was overwhelmed with vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The BJP has fielded the former well famed cricket star from the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency.
Gambhir is considered to be one of the richest candidates in Delhi, with the revenue of approximately Rs 12.4 crore in the income tax returns filed for the year 2017-18 and total assets cost Rs 147 crore. Atishi, Gambhir as well as Congress’ Arvinder Singh Lovely have locked their horns in a triangular competition in the East Delhi constituency.
On Tuesday, Gautam Gambhir had held a huge road show in Delhi in advance of filing his nomination from East Delhi. The BJP has fielded Gambhir from the constituency replacing sitting MP Maheish Girri.
The seven Lok Sabha constituencies of Delhi are going to polls on May 12 whereas, the counting of votes as well as the result will be declared on May 23. In the meantime, the Phase 1, 2 and 3 voting have taken places on different dates in the month of April.
