PATNA: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has approached the Patna high court to seek directions to the state election commission (SEC) to ensure that the model code of conduct is strictly enforced in the state ahead of elections to the state’s urban local bodies scheduled on December 18 and 28.
In a petition, BJP leader Siddharth Sambhu said the Nitish Kumar government was misusing its powers to lay foundation stones, commission new projects and make announcements of schemes to benefit certain classes of people in violation of the code of conduct.
The petition said SEC didn’t act on his complaints reporting the poll code violations and asked the high court to order first information reports (FIR) against chief minister Nitish Kumar and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav for organising programmes including one to commission Ganga Water Supply Scheme on November 27 and distribute appointment letters to fresh recruits on November 14 & 16.
“These programmes have the potential to impact local bodies elections despite SEC’s model code issued on September 9, 2022, which lays down conduct of persons holding government office, including ministers, elected representatives and officials. Yet, full page advertisements for government programmes and participation by government’s top functionaries have been on,” the petition said, adding that the BJP complained on December 2 but no action was taken.
Senior lawyer SD Sanjay said elections to local bodies were not held on party lines in Bihar but the government is still not allowed to publicise the inauguration of projects or announcement schemes according to SEC guidelines.
“They are not supposed to announce schemes or projects and make any announcements or assurances,” he said.
BJP state president Dr Sanjay Jaiswal said “the model code of conduct, as per SEC, is in force since the day the election was announced. However, the CM and the deputy CM have been inaugurating projects and laying foundation stone regularly and also advertising it, which is a violation. We approached the SEC, but when nothing was done, we moved the high court,” he added.
