Guwahati, April 6: The Opposition Congress in Assam has accused the ruling BJP of “openly violating” the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and urged the state election department to take appropriate action.
“It has been observed that the BJP has been openly violating the MCC and the Representation of the People Act, 1951 by way of carrying different government-circulated forms having the photographs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and distributing them house to house, asking voters to fill the forms for getting the benefits of Orunodoi and other such government schemes. This has been carried out throughout Assam while the election code of conduct is in vogue,” APCC general secretary Anowar Ahmed wrote in a letter to the Assam chief electoral officer on Friday.
“This has been done to garner voters in favour of the BJP. Few such acts have been in wide publicity on social media platforms such as Facebook, You Tube, Whatsapp, etc. It is of utmost essential that for holding a free and fair election, the eyes and ears of the Election Commissioner should remain open,” Ahmed stated.
“However, on the contrary, it has been observed that in Assam, the Election Commission has kept its eyes and ears shut, due to which in spite of the video showing clear violation of the election code of conduct, the same has not been seen and heard of by the Election Commission. Suo-moto action should have been taken against the members and political party involved in the acts,” the Congress leader said.
“Therefore, I on behalf of the Indian National Congress and the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee have brought into notice the facts, and pray that appropriate action may be taken for the violation of MCC and the Representation of the People Act against the BJP and its workers/campaigners,” he added.
In another letter, Ahmed further accused the BJP of MCC violation by way of circulation of various schemes highlighting distribution of monetary packages to the tune of Rs 10,000, Rs 12,500 and Rs 25,000 to students of different categories.
“These packages with monetary references are in violation of the Representation of People Act as well as the MCC that is in force now. In fact, the same has been done in clear violation of Section 123 of the Representation of the People Act, the same being “bribery” in nature,” he stated.
The leaflets distributed by the BJP were also enclosed in the letter to the Assam CEO for reference.
“As such, I on behalf of the Indian National Congress and the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee request your honour to take appropriate action against the BJP and debar them from circulating such leaflets among the voters with immediate effect,” he added.