EC's displeasure at Gadkari's remarks

New Delhi: The Election Commission on Saturday expressed "displeasure" at Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's reported remarks asking voters to accept bribe during campaigning in Maharashtra Assembly polls.

In its order, which also carried excerpts of Gadkari's response to the Commission's show cause notice, EC said "irrespective of whatever intentions you might have had, such statements clearly bring disrepute to the purity of our elections as well as the integrity of the democratic process."

Expressing "displeasure", EC said it expects Gadkari to be "more circumspect in your public utterances in future."