Withdraw your manifesto, SEC tells Congress

BHUBANESWAR: The State Election Commission (SEC) on Wednesday asked the Congress to withdraw its manifesto for the panchayat polls from circulation forthwith. In his ruling on a complaint filed by the Biju Janata Dal, State Election Commissioner Ajit Kumar Tripathy said the manifesto may be reprinted by the Congress by deleting the objectionable parts.The party would have to delete the first three paragraphs of Page 3 of the manifesto captioned as ‘Dagi Sarakara, Thuggi Sasan’, the chapter captioned ‘Daga Lagithiba Mantrinkar Talika (the list of tainted ministers)’ in pages 9 and 10 and the cartoon with the 10-headed monster captioned ‘Odishara Dasanana’ on the back page.The ruling has come as a blow to the Congress in the midst of the campaigning. It is yet to decide on its next course of action. Describing the order as illegal, unconstitutional and wrong, senior Congress leader and former law minister Narasingh Mishra said that party is examining the papers to move the High Court for quashing the order.In a memorandum submitted to the SEC on January 31, the BJD had requested it to issue a direction to the Congress for withdrawal of the manifesto, describing it as offensive. The manifesto is a brazen contravention of various provisions of the model code of conduct issued by the SEC and particularly  various clauses of chapter-I, II, V and IX A read with Odisha Grama Panchayat Act, 1964 and the IPC 1860, it said.The BJD had also taken exception to the description of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik as an accused. The manifesto had named 13 other ministers for their involvement in scams and irregularities. The document unfortunately contains extremely offensive language, particularly against the Chief Minister and his pictorial images, which are inappropriate in the course of public discourse and election campaign, the BJD had complained.Based on the complaint, the SEC had issued notice to the Congress asking it to explain the contents. In its reply, the Congress said it has not violated the model code of conduct by mentioning about corruption charges against the Chief Minister and other ministers as these were old issues and well known.