MANEKA GANDHI, THE widow of late Sanjay Gandhi and mother of ‘young turk leader’ Varun Gandhi received notice from the election commission officials on Saturday (March 21).
The Badaun district administration issued notice to Maneka Gandhi for violating provisions of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). Her seat, Aonla Parliamentary constituency, falls under the Badaun district.
While speaking to the media, Uday Raj Singh, the nodal officer for monitoring the MCC violation said that Maneka received notice from the concerned authority for perpetrating in wall writings on some government and private buildings, which has already been declared as the violation of MCC by the Election Commission of India (ECI).
The wall paintings for casting votes to Maneka Gandhi have been found at around eight different spots in the Anola constituency, which includes government primary school, temple, waiting area for passengers and local public works department office.
Apart from Maneka, Dharmendra Kashyap, the Samajwadi Party candidate from Aonla; DP Yadav, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate from Badaun and DK Bharadwaj, a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader also received notices from the EC for the same reason.
The ECI clearly mentions in its MCC: “No wall writing, pasting of posters, papers or defacement in any other form or erecting or displaying of cutouts, hoardings, banners flags etc shall be permitted on any government premise (including civil structures therein).”
The ECI also mentions that if the concerned political party, association, candidate or person does not respond promptly, then the district authorities must take action to remove the defacement and the expenses incurred in the process shall be recovered from those responsible for defacement. The ECI also mentions in its MCC that the amount shall be added to the election expenditure of the candidate concerned and strict action should be initiated to prosecute the offender under the provisions of the relevant law.
As per the specified rules, three days time-limit has been directed to all concerned to remove the wall writing / painting. If the order will not be executed within the specified time limit, it will be considered that the candidates are unwilling to execute the proposed orders. Therefore, strict action would be taken against the offenders under relevant section of the Representation of People’s Act due to the violation of the provisions of the MCC.