EC seeks reports on Modi’s rally in Faizabad 

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Within hours of Narendra Modi’s address to a rally in Faizabad where he invoked Lord Ram, the Election Commission sought a report from the district authorities about his speech and the stage backdrop.

“I have sought a report on Modi’s speech and backdrop of the stage at the rally from District Magistrate, Faizabad,” Uttar Pradesh Chief Electoral Officer Umesh Sinha told a news agency.  Modi addressed a rally in Faizabad in support of party candidate Lallu Singh from a stage which had pictures of Lord Ram and the proposed Ram Temple model in Ayodhya.  At the rally, the BJP PM candidate skirted any reference to his party’s pet theme of building Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, which is part of the district and epicentre of Ram Mandir movement, but made several references to Lord Ram to exhort people to defeat Congress, SP and BSP and support BJP.  Modi had earlier courted trouble when he was booked for violating electoral laws after he delivered a politically charged speech and displayed his party’s symbol ‘lotus’ soon after voting in Gandhinagar on April 30.  He was slated to address rallies in Ambedkarnagar, Faizabad, Jaunpur, Kaushambi and Amethi districts of Uttar Pradesh on the last day of campaigning for the 8th phase.