The high-pitched rhetoric ahead of the Lok Sabha elections has invited a spate of notices from the Election Commission on RJD supremo Lalu Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi,Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray and a senior Congress leader in Andhra Pradesh. The leaders from different parties have been given time till April 11 to reply to the notices,Deputy Election Commissioner J P Prakash told reporters in New Delhi. They faced complaints of violations of Model Code of Conduct. Prasad faced the notice for his reported statement at an election rally that he would have crushed Varun Gandhi under a 'roller without caring for consequences' for his anti-Muslim speeches if he was the home minister. Prasad has since clarified that what he meant was crushing the BJP Lok Sabha candidate under the "roller of law" to suggest he would have been bulldozed legally. Rabri Devi,who is also the leader of the Opposition in Bihar Assembly,got the notice for allegedly making insulting personal remarks against Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. FIRs have been already filed against both Prasad and Rabri. Andhra Pradesh Congress Committee President D Srinivas has been served with the notice for an "obectionable" statement that "he would sever the hands of those who point a finger at minorities." Uddhav Thackeray got the notice for his alleged derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a poll rally.
