Lawyer alleges CM, deputy CM broke poll code

A city lawyer has alleged code of conduct violation against the Congress-NCP alliance for their poll promise of protecting slums built up till 2000 — made in their recently-released manifesto — and has complained to the state election commission.

A city lawyer has alleged code of conduct violation against the Congress-NCP alliance for their poll promise of protecting slums built up till 2000 — made in their recently-released manifesto — and has complained to the state election commission.

HT Image

Shirish Deshpande, who heads consumer body Mumbai Grahak Panchayat further alleged that chief minister Prithviraj Chavan and deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar tried to influence voters through the poll promises. “They violated the model election code and also adopted corrupt practices to influence voters.”

Deshpande told HT that the civic polls are not connected to the issue of regularising illegal slums. “If any corporator is found protecting any illegal structure, he can be disqualified.”

SEC officials said they had not received the complaint and election commissioner Neela Satynarayan was unavailable for comment. However, Deshpande said he had emailed the SEC on Thursday. “I called their office, there was no response,” he said.

He also wants SEC to ask the CM to stop misusing official residence ‘Varsha’ to talk to reporters about poll-related issues.