BJD Moves CEO Against Police For Removing Party Banners In Bijepur

Bhubaneswar: Ahead of the ensuing byelection to Bijepur Assembly constituency in Odisha’s Bargarh district scheduled on February 24, the BJD on Saturday lodged a complaint with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) alleging that the police is forcibly removing the party banners, hoardings and flags in Bijepur Assembly constituency.

In a letter to the CEO, BJD state secretary Priyadarshi Mishra said after removal of the hoardings, banners and flags of the BJD, the BJP workers are installing their hoardings, banners and flags at the same place.

He said though the BJD workers have brought the matter to the notice of the concerned officers, they are not paying any heed to the complaint.

Mishra urged the CEO to urgently intervene in the matter and directed the police to remove the BJP hoardings, banners and flags according to election conduct rules.

In another letter to the CEO on Saturday, Mishra said a voice message is being transmitted through two mobile numbers 7938273173, 7971770077 and certain other numbers which Is intended to tarnish the image of state government and take electoral advantage by a political party in the ensuing Bijepur byelection.

The voice message contains baseless facts about the Kunduli incident and a voice recording claiming it to be the voice of the deceased victim. Even though the matter is at present sub judice in the court of law, the recorded voice outright casts aspersions on the state government and puts blame on the administration for their inaction the alleged incident and even makes derogatory remarks against the Director General of Police, he pointed out.

Claiming that this is the handiwork of the BJP with the ulterior motive of making electoral gain by biasing the voters to vote for them in the ensuing byelection to Bijepur Assembly constituency, Mishra said as per rules, every campaigning material including a voice message has to be approved by the Election Commission (EC) before the same is used for electoral campaign.

“In the instant case, it is violative of the Model Code of Conduct issued by the Election Commission of India and is in the nature of a criminal offence,” the BJD leader said and requested the CEO to take immediate step to stop the transmission of the voice message and initiate action against such criminal propaganda after getting its content examined as per the provisions of electoral, cyber and criminal law.