Bhubaneswar: A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) moved the Election Commission alleging that party workers of Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) were trying to lure voters in next week’s Dhamnagar assembly bypoll, the BJD also approached EC with a counter-complaint against BJP leaders who they accused of indulging in electoral malpractices during the campaigning.
A delegation of the BJD comprising MPs Chandra Sekhar Sahoo, Niranjan Bishi, Muzibullah Khan, and Sasmit Patra on Thursday submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission office in New Delhi in which they accused BJP leaders of wilfully and maliciously tarnishing and defaming the image of Mission Shakti Women Self Help Group members.
“Fake and fictitious videos are being manufactured by Odisha BJP leaders and being circulated in social media stating that Mission Shakti (Women Self Help Group) members. The Odisha BJP is not only defaming them and tarnishing their image but also doing a great disservice to the women of Odisha and the nation. Especially when they are growing socio-economically and being champions of women’s empowerment. By indulging in fake and false allegations against the local administration, they are trying to create a fear psychosis in the local administration with the intent to mentally harass them from executing their jobs in a free and fair manner,” BJD alleged in its memorandum.
The BJD memorandum came a day after Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and party spokesperson Sambit Patra complained to EC against what they described as unfair means adopted by the ruling party to entice voters and the inaction of the state’s chief electoral officer in the face of blatant poll code violations.
{{/usCountry}}The BJD memorandum came a day after Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and party spokesperson Sambit Patra complained to EC against what they described as unfair means adopted by the ruling party to entice voters and the inaction of the state’s chief electoral officer in the face of blatant poll code violations.
{{/usCountry}}“The CEO is also the secretary of the panchayati raj department. He is sitting silent over field staff of Panchayati Raj, Rural Development and Women and Child Welfare departments openly working for the ruling party in Dhamnagar. Money is being distributed through women’s self-help groups. A free and fair election is the least expected from the CEO who instead of protecting the law has turned a violator by conveniently looking the other way when the BJD workers are blatantly violating all electoral norms,” Pradhan alleged on Wednesday.
On Thursday, the BJP also alleged that the Bhadrak district administration was harassing party workers in Dhamnagar by misusing the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code. “Using sections 107 and 110 of the Code Of Criminal Procedure, 1973 under which magistrates can ask a person to furnish security over a possible breach of peace, more than 900 BJP workers are being asked to give an undertaking in the courts of local judicial magistrate. BJP workers are being threatened with false cases,” alleged Lekhashree Samantsinghar, Odisha general secretary of BJP.