Aam Aadmi Party candidate Medha Patkar is in no tearing hurry. After an exhaustive campaign for herself and other candidates across the country, a visibly relaxed Patkar now systematically takes on her rivals for violating the model code of conduct.
Patkar has raised poll code violations by both her opponents – Bharatiya Janata Party's Kirit Somaiya and Nationalist Congress Party's Sanjay Dina Patil – with the Returning Officer.
The two had, in clear violation of the rules, printed and distributed voter slips with candidate pictures, party symbol and other messages printed on the slips, she says, sitting on a chair in the tree-lined compound of her mother’s apartment in suburban Mumbai.
An activist to the core, Patkar says, “We will follow this to the end.” The Model Code of Conduct says that the voter slip should be printed only in white so that it does not play a role in influencing voters. The Returning Officer (RO) of the Mumbai North-East constituency has directed Somaiya and Patil to include the actual expenses (which is fives times more for Somaiya and eight times more for Patil) incurred on printing and distributing the cards under their total expenses.
The Election Commission (EC) has allowed candidates to spend Rs 70 lakh individually for election campaigning. It, however, puts no bar on the party's expenditure.
Patkar further alleges that both candidates have spent well in excess of Rs 70 lakh each. She said that Somaiya had put up eight huge hoardings across the constituency, each costing at least Rs 5 lakh. The EC had asked political parties to buy advertisement space for putting up hoardings and not use public spaces freely.
Somaiya, in his reply to the EC, tried to pass-on such expenditure as party's expenditure. The Returning Officer has, however, disagreed with Somaiya and others on the issue of voter slips. The EC is still investigating the hoardings issue, she said.
“If proven guilty, they can be dis-qualified (if they win),” Patkar said adding “We will bring out the entire truth.”
She also came down heavily on BJP’s Prime Minister candidate Narendra Modi for buying out huge advertisements in newspapers. The EC rule states that campaigning should end 48 hours before the polling in every constituency. It was, however, found that large advertisements were carried in newspapers on the day of polling.
“So much for Modi's talk of good governance. The EC must not wait for us to raise complains but act expeditiously as soon as it finds that the rules have been violated,” Patkar added with a lament, “Else it will never provide level playing field for honest candidates.”