Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janta Dal (BJD) on Tuesday knocked the Poll Body requesting a ban of 7 days on Union Minister and Bharatiya Janata Party Leader Dharmendra Pradhan. The Odisha ruling party in a letter to the Election Commission accused Pradhan of violating the model code of conduct.
It is alleged that the Union Minister campaign for the party for on Tuesday during Phase-III after casting his vote.
‘This is to bring to your kind notice that a gross violation of the Model Code of Conduct has been conducted by BJP leader and Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan today’, the letter submitted to Poll Commission stated.
The Odisha ruling party further revealing the details said that Union Minister has given a byte to a media channel where has asked campaigned for the party. The party in the letter also attached the video clip of the byte along with its transcript.
Demanding strict against the Union Minister, BJP further stated that, ‘Campaigning for his political party and that too at the Polling Booth and this being telecasted across the state is a flagrant violation of the Model Code of Conduct and Election Guidelines by BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan,”
‘Strict and Immediate action must be taken against him’, the letter added. The party demanded a ban of a week against Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. The party further gave references to earlier complaints and no action was taken in those complaints.
The Letter submitted by the party further said, ‘If no action on this complaint is taken, then the spirit of a free and fair election would remain just pious platitudes and day-dream field a complaint against Dharmendra Pradhan alleging him for violation of Model Code of Conduct after casting vote demands One Week Ban on Pradhan.’
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Similar Complaint was filed by the BJD during the first phase of voting on April 11. The Odisha ruling party claimed that the details of the Bharatiya Janata Party Press Conference being provided on scrolling news on OTV.
While the day after the second round of polling, BJD has written to Poll Commission for allegedly misbehaving with the government officials while they wanted to check his helicopter in suspect of the unaccounted cash during the election duty.
General Elections 2019 and State Polls in Odisha is clubbed. BJD in a run-up to the polls is taking on aggressive Bharatiya Janata Party and Indian National Congress. The State will Poll on the four rounds of Polling starting from April 11.
The State has a total of 147 State Assembly while having 21 Lok Sabha Seats. Currently, BJD has 117 lawmakers in the state assembly.
The Counting of votes for the mega battle of ballots and the State Polls will take place on May 23, four days after last round of polling.
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