Uttarakhand State Election commission has issued notices to the state presidents of Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress, drawing their attention to violation of the model code of conduct through social media accounts of some of their party leaders without authentication. Both were directed to reply to the notices within three days. Sources say that similar notices would be sent to leaders at state and district levels soon. Moreover, election commission has issued directives for the leaders of various political parties and independent candidates on how to use the social networking sites to motivate the voters without compromising the model code of conduct.
Giving details, Uttarakhand chief electoral officer Radha Raturi stated on Friday that they have learnt about the irregularities being indulged in by several political parties while campaigning through the social networking sites through the newly formed additional CEO committee. Social media accounts without authentication were found to be operating in the name of BJP leaders Ajay Bhatt, Satpal Maharaj, Dinesh Singh Panwar, Ajay Bhandari, Umesh Aggarwal, Bhupesh Upadhyay, Pradeep Batra and Ganesh Joshi.
likewise, the social media accounts of Congress leaders- Harish Rawat, Indira Hridayesh, Kishore Upadhayay, Sarita Arya and Tilakraj Behar- were also found to be in operation without authentication.
“Not just these leaders of two national parties but those of smaller parties are doing the same. We have taken serious note of such and sent notices to some. We would issue similar notices to others soon,” she said.
In the notices, the commission stated that using social networking site accounts without authentication appears to be a blatant violation of model code of conduct. It sought reply as to why action should not be taken for breach of model code of conduct against the parties.
Raturi said that all the district Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) members have been monitoring the social media accounts in their respective districts and notices were being served in case irregularities were noticed. She requested the leaders of all the political parties to get secure authentication from the MCMC for the social media account they operate, while warning that failure to comply could be viewed as a violation of the model code of conduct.