Gandhinagar, (Samajweekly) The legal unit of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Gujarat has filed a complaint against Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel for alleged violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC), with the Gujarat State Election Commission (SEC), the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) and District Magistrate, Ahmedabad.
“Gujarat chief minister Bhupendra Patel had conducted a ‘Sabha’ at Isanpur in Ahmedabad on Saturday where bypolls for local body are underway. The AAP complains that he cannot campaign as he is not a star campaigner of the BJP as his name is not on the list of campaigners submitted to the SEC. Moreover, as a Chief Minister, he cannot campaign and use his vehicle fleet to go for campaigning for a political candidate,” writes Pranav Thakkar, the AAP state legal cell president in his complaint.
“This is a serious breach and violation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC) and will affect free and fair elections in the said ward. Besides that, the government machinery is being used rampant in this election and even state police was used for security in that Sabha,” he said.
“We have enclosed few photographs of Sabha, in support of our complaint,” says the AAP complaint.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP has made strong inroads into Gujarat with an aim to contest all the 182 seats of the state Assembly constituencies the elections for which will take place by the end of the next year.
The AAP also claims that the recent changes brought in by the BJP in Gujarat by changing the entire cabinet was a forced decision following AAP’s tremendous success in the state. The party has also fielded candidates for all the 11 ward seats in the Gandhinagar Municipal Corporation elections which are slated next month.
