New Delhi: Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh violated the model code of conduct (MCC) when he called for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to be reelected, Election Commission sources said.
According to reports, the poll panel will write to President Ram Nath Kovind to bring the matter to his notice. The EC will tell the president that Singh ‘lowered the prestige of high office’ by referring to himself as a ‘BJP karyakarta‘. The President’s Office can only act if it receives a complaint from the EC.
On March 23, Singh told reporters that “everyone wants Modi to win” and that it’s “necessary for the country”. His comments were flagged to the EC.
In an apparent bid to quell an internal feud in the BJP’s Aligarh unit, he said “we are all BJP workers, so we will want the BJP to win”. “Sab chahengey ek baar phir sey kendra mein Modiji pradhanmantri banein. Modiji ka pradhanmantri banna ye desh ke liye avashyak hai, samaaj ke liye avashyak hai. (Everyone will want Modi to become PM again. Modi becoming PM is necessary for the nation and society),” he said.
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After the EC sough a factual report on the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s comments, the Aligarh district magistrate submitted his evidence. Details and a clip of the comments were submitted to the Uttar Pradesh chief electoral officer on Friday.
Singh was the UP chief minister during the demolition of the Babri Masjid. He quit the BJP in 1999, but rejoined it in 2004. He was appointed the governor of Rajasthan after the party formed the government at the Centre in 2014. Singh’s son and grandson are also BJP members. His son Rajveer Singh is an MP from UP, while grandson Sandeep Singh is a minister in the UP state government.
This is only the second time that a governor has been found in violation of the MCC. In the 1990s, Himachal Pradesh Governor Gulsher Ahmed was pulled up by the poll panel for campaigning for his son Sayeed Ahmed in the Madhya Pradesh elections. He later quit when the EC expressed displeasure over the misuse of state machinery.