The Election Commission, on the dispute aroused on the speech of Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev, has made it clear that he (Ramdev) has not violated the model election code of conduct.
However, his speech could be considered as election campaign in favour of the BJP and for that, the expenses incurred in his meetings could be added with the election expenditure of the party.
Chief Election Officer Sunil Kujur said that reports regarding meetings of Baba Ramdev have been sought from collectors, but did not found any violation of code of conduct in it. The institution of the Baba — Bharat Swabhiman Andolan — had taken formal permission for conducting voter awareness campaign and yoga camp. But in the report, one meeting has been considered as election campaign in favour of a particular party, as in the meeting Ramdev had said in his speech that the prime minister of the country should be like Narendra Modi and chief minister like Dr Raman Singh, he added.
On the basis of the report, the expenditures of the meeting of Baba Ramdev could be added in the expenditure of the party. It was also being examined that whether it would come under the paid news category. Further action would be taken on this base. Baba Ramdev, during the last three days, had addressed voter awareness campaign and yoga camps at about 15 assembly constituencies of Durg, Bemetara, Kawardha, Nandgaon, Korea districts. On Tuesday evening, he returned to Delhi.
His speeches have generated much heat in the state politics. At various places, in his meetings, Ramdev had given a clarion call to root out the Congress. He openly charged the Congress with corruption, which the Congress had vehemently protested.
The state Congress had also demanded ban on Baba Ramdev. In protest, the Mahila Congress workers had tried to present sari and bangles to the Baba at Mana Airport on Tuesday evening and the Congress workers had also staged protests. State Congress leader and former Minister Satyanarayan Sharma said that the entry of Baba Ramdev should be banned, as he was trying to disturb the atmosphere of the state.
Terming it as of illiterate conduct, in his statement, former chief minister Ajit Jogi said that the so-called yoga guru Baba Ramdev had made baseless allegation on the Congress party and Gandhi Nehru family. He said that CBI has been investigating about the land and assets worth thousands of crores of rupees, illegally accrued by the Baba.
Jogi said that the BJP and the Raman government had been conducting public meetings in the name of yoga at Raipur and other places by giving political patronage to the so-called yoga guru on the expenses of the Government and was using him for levelling baseless allegations on the Congress and the Gandhi-Nehru
family. He said that through the irresponsible and baseless allegations and statements of Baba Ramdev, efforts were being made to spread communal hatred and enmity among people of the state, the result of which would be dreadful and inflammable.