Bengaluru: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) State unit on Tuesday, April 10 appealed to the Chief Election Officer (CEO) to relax certain conditions in the Code of Conduct in force for the May 12 elections to the Legislative Assembly.
A delegation led by Union Minister Prakash Javadekar, who is also BJP in-charge of the Karnataka Election, met CEO Sanjiv Kumar here in a memorandum addressed to the Chief Election Commissioner, appealed to relax the Code pertaining to the removal of the writing on the walls of private buildings, introduction of Single Window for clearing applications received seeking permission for using mike systems, use of vehicles etc.
Underlining that the removal of flags on temples is against the rules, the delegation has appealed to the CEO to give instructions to restrain officers from such acts. The delegation has also made an appeal for the use of helicopters and more vehicles for campaigning.
Besides Javdekar, the delegation included Union Minister Ananth Kumar, Lok Sabha members Shobha Kharandlje, P C Mohan, and former Deputy Chief Minister R Ashok, among others.
The delegation has appealed to the CEO to direct the poll officials to allow farmers to visit BJP state president B.S. Yeddyurappa’s residence. “The BJP has launched a two-week campaign of Musti Dhanya Abhiyan (a fist full of grains campaign) across the 224 Assembly segments from March 21. The BJP is planning to conclude the campaign by sharing the food with a few farmers at our leader Sri Yeddyurappa’s residence. The Abhiyan has started much earlier to the announcement of elections. However, the Election Commission officials under the guise of the Model Code of Conduct are restricting the farmers from reaching Yeddyurappa’s residence. It is beyond one’s imagination why the EC is creating obstructions to the smooth conduct of the in-house program,’’ the BJP delegation said in the memorandum.
Blaming the EC officials for not granting permission for the bike rallies, the delegation has objected to the EC officials granting permission only for 10 vehicles. “No law or notification says that permissions cannot be granted for more than 10 vehicles,’’ the delegation said.
