Acting on the BJP-levelled allegation that Chief Minister Harish Rawat had convened a Press conference at his official residence on January 4 a few hours after the model code of conduct came into effect in the State, the State Chief Electoral Officer Radha Raturi has asked Chief Secretary S Ramaswamy to probe it.
Meanwhile, BJP has trained its gun on the CM again on the matter on Friday with the BJP State spokesman Vinay Goyal alleging that it was a serious offence, given the fact that the CM was well aware of the electoral norms being a Union Minister in his earlier stint. "His scant regard for the constitutionally mandated rules was fully exposed by his unabashedly using the official machinery to convene the Press conference to flaunt his spurious achievements," Goyal said.
He added as soon as he had come to learn about the Press conference convened in violation of the poll code, he had called up the CEO to inform her of the development. "Radha Raturi later informed me that she had taken initiatives to have the Press conference stopped. However, the fact is that despite receiving the intimation from the election commission, CM did convene the Press conference at the time earlier fixed. later, he said during the Press conference that he was unaware of the enforcement of the model code of conduct," he alleged.
He asked the election commission to take stringent action against the erring CM if it wanted the election to be held in a free and fair manner in the state. "I have written to the chief secretary too, asking him to take appropriate action on the matter to make it a deterrent for others from trashing the rules with such disdain. However, we are apprehensive that the administration would go for some kind of token action by making the head of an information department official to roll with the main guilty remaining unscathed. In that case, my party would not accept it and go further to have the guilty adequately punished," Goyal said.