BJP accuses Cong of violating Model Code of Conduct, files complaint with State Election Commission

Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur alleges that Congress is filling forms for Rs 1,500 monthly pension to woo voters, violating Model Code of Conduct. BJP files complaint with State Election Commission. Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu's and Indira Gandhi's photos on forms. Complaint lodged in Himachal Pradesh after Lok Sabha election announcement.

Leader of the Opposition Jai Ram Thakur on Monday said the BJP has filed a complaint with the State Election Commission alleging that forms to get Rs 1,500 per month are being filled in the offices of the block development office and panchayats to woo the voters by the Congress.

Distributing and filling forms with the photographs of former prime minister Indira Gandhi and Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu is a violation of the Model Code of Conduct enforced for the Lok Sabha polls and we have asked the Election Commission to take cognizance of the complaint, Thakur told PTI here.

This is the first complaint of the violation of the Model Code of Conduct in the state after the Lok Sabha elections were announced on March 16. Thakur said that these forms were filled before the last assembly elections also but this guarantee of the Congress was also not fulfilled.

The Himachal Pradesh government had issued a notification on Thursday to give Rs 1,500 monthly to women in the age group of 18 to 59 years. On March 4, the chief minister had announced that a sum of Rs 800 crore would be spent on the initiative, benefitting more than five lakh women annually.

However, Chief Electoral Officer Maneesh Garg had made it clear that new beneficiaries cannot be added under the Yojana and the forms cannot be filled for getting Rs 1,500 per month pension as it carries the chief minister's photograph.

The BJP's Hamirpur district unit has filed a complaint with the Hamirpur deputy commissioner, who is also the returning officer for Hamirpur Lok Sabha seat, for violation of the Model Code of Conduct by the Congress alleging that forms to get Rs 1,500 monthly are being filled.

In his complaint, BJP's Hamirpur District President Des Raj Sharma said the process of submission of forms is going on which is a violation and requested that this practice should be stopped immediately.

Sharma warned the authorities that if this illegal work of the Congress was not stopped then the BJP would be compelled to resort to agitation.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)