In the wake of the State Election Commission’s (SEC) indictment of Finance Minister Prasanna Acharya for his “no vote, no note” remark, the BJP on Wednesday demanded that the SEC declare null and void the recent elections to 20 urban local bodies (UlBs) in nine districts of western Odisha for blatant violation of the model code of conduct by the ruling BJD.
BJP State chief spokesperson Sajjan Sharma told a Press conference that the SEC’s finding in the Finance Minister’s case is the “tip of iceberg”. During the poll campaign in western Odisha, the BJD rank and file, particularly its president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, committed large-scale violation of poll code with misuse of the official machinery and use of money and muscle power.
Sharma said the Minister Acharya not only violated the model code of conduct but also violated the People’s Representation Act; so he should resign from his position on moral grounds. If Naveen Patnaik has little respect for democratic values, he should sack Acharya from the Cabinet, Sharma said.
Sharma also slammed the SEC Ajit Kumar Tripathy for acting in a partisan manner and regretted that despite holding Acharya guilty of gross violation of the model code, he only issued a warning instead of taking any action against him.
Giving instances of the SEC’s “partisan attitude,” he said that earlier during the first phase of UlB polls, Mines Minister Rajanikanta Singh had violated the poll code by misusing his official machinery and that of the Angul district Collector for election work. But the SEC had not taken any action against him except asking the Government to transfer the Collector, whose office had received a fax from Singh. In this case, the SEC had only asked to file an FIR and then remained silent, Sharma pointed out.
Stating that the SEC has become an “advisory body and toothless apparatus”, Sharma lamented that in case of the highhandedness of Health Minister Damodar Rout, who used a car with beacon, had not been seen as serious violation of the poll code by the SEC. The Chief Minister too had violated the code by using a college premises for landing his chopper and using the Circuit House in Jagatsinghpur for party poll purposes.
“During the entire elections, the office of the SEC seemed to work as an extension of the ruling BJD,” he said, and added the high office of the SEC has been severely tarnished.