Birthday Wishes or Poll Boost?
Many prominent places in East Nagpur were flooded with hoardings conveying birthday wishes to MLA Krishna Khopde on Thursday.
Nagpur News.
Call it a coincidence or just a clash of dates that local MLA Krishna Khopde’s birthday fell on Thursday, the day after the dates for Lok Sabha elections were announced, invoking the code of conduct. The newspapers were flooded with advertisements of Khopde’s supporters wishing their mentor the day. Moreover, the hoardings too grabbed the space wishing birthday to Khopde on Thursday.
While this has raised eyebrows of many party leaders, in particular and voters, in general, former corporator Nana Jhode stood up and raised an alarm. He has complained the matter to Nagpur’s election officer Meshram. In his complaint, Jhode said that the Khopde and his supporters have openly violated the code of conduct by running a chain of advertisements in newspapers and getting the wishes displayed on the hoardings. Jhode alleged this has been deliberately done to gain poll benefits under the garb of birthday wishes.
As the election commission announced the schedule of Lok Sabha elections, code of conduct ran effective, bringing under scanner all the promotional activities by the political parties and candidates in the fray. In Nagpur too, the election commission has sounded caution to the parties to refrain from anything adverse to the election code of conduct. The code of conduct calls for ban on any promotion for appeasing voters or any activity deliberately undertaken for gaining edge over rivals, without prior permission from the election commission.
In his telephonic complaint Jhode claimed that no prior permission was sought from the election officer before going ahead with the advertisements which clearly violate the code of conduct. Election officer Meshram has assured Jhode of appropriate action in the matter.
