Marcus Dam

KOLKATA: The Election Commission has served a notice on Bimal Gurung, president of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), for his alleged derogatory comments against West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and the State’s Minister for Municipal Affairs, Ashok Bhattacharjee, while addressing an election rally in Siliguri on April 25.

The GJM is supporting Bharatiya Janata Party’s candidate, Jaswant Singh for the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency.

“The notice was served to Mr. Gurung last evening,” District Magistrate Surendra Gupta told The Hindu over the telephone from Darjeeling.

“Reply within 72 hours”

Assistant returning officer Sharad Dwivedi, who is also the sub-divisional officer, Siliguri, said Mr. Gurung was asked to reply within 72 hours of the notice being served as to why action should not be taken against him for having violated the model code of conduct.