EC slaps 3-yr poll ban on MP minister
It (paid news) is a grave electoral malpractice which circumvents election expenditure limits, disturbs the level playing field and militates against voters’ right to accurate info
The Election Commission banned on Saturday senior Madhya Pradesh minister Narottam Mishra from contesting elections for three years for allegedly using paid news to fan his assembly election campaign in 2008.
“As per law, Mishra stands disqualified from the date of issuance of order and debarred further for three years from contesting elections,” an Election Commission official said.
The EC decision came on a complaint by Rajendra Bharti, who had fought the 2008 elections as a BSP candidate, but is now with the Congress.
Mishra is considered number two in the state government and the decision is being seen as a big blow to chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan who is battling a string of farmer suicides and crop protests.
Mishra said he would challenge the EC move in the high court. “I have said that I have not given any money to the media and media has said it has not taken any money from me. But despite this, if EC has taken a decision based on possibilities and imagination, we will move the court on this. And we hope we will get justice,” he said
Bharti had moved the EC saying that his opponent Mishra paid for coverage in the local media during assembly elections in 2008 from Datia. Bharti, a Congress leader, was the MLA from Datia in 1985 and 1998 but lost the election against the minister in 2008 and 2013.
Mishra had moved the state high court urging it to quash the investigation against him by the poll panel by declaring the Section 10 of representation of people act outside the powers of the Election Commission. But the court rejected his plea.
Mishra , who is the public relations minister, is also the chief spokesperson of the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government.
BJP state president Nand Kumar Singh Chauhan said it was an unfortunate development , terming the EC move ‘dooshit (polluted)’. He too said the party will appeal before the high court.
Elaborating on its order, the EC said, “This (paid news) phenomenon, a manifestation of the pernicious effect of money in elections, has been growing increasingly vicious and spreading like cancer, in recent times.
“It is a grave electoral malpractice which circumvents election expenditure limits, disturbs the level playing field and militates against the voters’ right to accurate information to enable him to make informed choice,” it said. Just as news Mishra’s disqualification spread, the Congress demanded his resignation from the state cabinet.
“In view of the EC order, he should immediately resign from the Cabinet,” the leader of opposition, Ajay Singh, told news agency PTI.
A man along with his family allegedly tied his 22-yearold daughter to a cot, doused her in kerosene and burnt her to death in Moradabad on Friday afternoon, police said.
The victim’s in-laws told police that her family was upset because she married against her parents’ wishes.
Gulfasha Bi was home with her two-year-old son and another relative on Friday when her father and others allegedly roughed her up and set her on fire. They spared the child, police said. Gulfasha died on the spot while her relative sustained burns while trying to douse the fire.
“The house of one Gulfasha Bi, 22, was attacked by her father Mashruf Raza Khan and others at around 2pm on Friday. They reportedly manhandled her and later set her on fire before fleeing from the place,” said superintendent of police (city) Ashish Srivastav.
Gulfasha’s in-laws told police that she married Sajid Ali three years ago. Her father and others refused to accept the marriage.
The victim’s in-laws claimed that her father swore to kill her the day she eloped with Sajid.
“Mashruf came to our house when Gulfasha and Sajid got married and said he would kill her,” Sajid’s cousin Aftab told HT over phone.
“Based on preliminary evidence and the statements given by the families it seems that it might be a case of honour killing,” said Srivastav.
A police team reached the house by 3pm and collected evidence. The charred remains of were sent for post mortem.
Sajad’s father registered an FIR under 302(murder) and other sections of IPC against 11 people, including Mashruf Raza Khan. One of the accused, Gulfasha’s cousin Ashraf, was arrested on Friday night.