CHHATTISGARH: EC ISSUES NOTICE TO BJP CANDIDATE OVER HER PHOTO ON POSTER FOR RELIGIOUS MEET

KORBA/RAIGARH: The Election Commission has issued a show cause notice to the BJP candidate from the Korba Lok Sabha constituency in Chhattisgarh for violating the model code of conduct (MCC) after her photograph allegedly appeared on posters and banners for a religious programme, an official said on Sunday.

Following a complaint from the Congress party, the office of the assistant returning officer of the Korba Lok Sabha constituency on Friday served a notice to BJP candidate Saroj Pandey and sought her reply by April 29, the official said.

As per the complaint, the BJP had put up banners and posters with photographs of Pandey and ministers of the BJP-led state government for a religious programme of Dhirendra Giri Shastri in Chirmiri town in the Manendragarh assembly segment on Friday, he said.

The Manendragarh assembly segment falls under the Korba Lok Sabha constituency.

The Congress, in its complaint, alleged that the BJP candidate had misused the religious programme for electioneering and demanded that the expenses from the event must be included in her poll expenditure, the complaint said.

Meanwhile, the election expenditure observer of the Raigarh Lok Sabha constituency served a notice to BJP candidate Radheshaym Rathiya on Saturday over discrepancies in his poll expenditure, an official statement said.

Rathiya had declared Rs 7.09 lakh as his poll expenditure so far, while the observation register indicated that he had spent Rs 13.83 lakh, it said.

The BJP's Pandey is pitted against sitting MP Jyotsana Mahant of the Congress, and Rathiya is contesting against the Congress's Menka Devi Singh in the Korba and Raigarh Lok Sabha constituencies, respectively.

The two constituencies will go to polls in the third phase of the general elections on May 7.