With the Delhi election office keeping a strict watch and political parties in the Capital learning what not to do, violations of the model code of conduct ahead of the Delhi Assembly elections seem to be on a downward spiral.
Even though new entrant — the Aam Aadmi Party — continues to lead the list of maximum violations that have resulted in filing of first information reports, Chief Electoral Officer Vijay Dev on Monday noted that violations among political parties have substantially reduced.
“The electorate process is a learning process. As and when things are becoming clearer, we are seeing a reduction in the number of model code of conduct violations,” he said.
“There is a difference in perception too since they [political parties] think that signs on private properties do not classify as defacement. But the law as it stands today suggests that any political content on private property that is in full public view will be classified as a violation,” he added.
However, the average number of FIRs filed against the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party, the AAP and the Bahujan Samaj Party has come down to about one or two per day, Mr. Dev said.
“A week ago, the AAP had 89 FIRs against it and now the number is up by just one more case this week. The graph showing the number of violations will start to see a downward spiral.”
The Chief Electoral Office has recorded a total of 2,927 cases of violations of the model code of conduct — 344 FIRs have been lodged, with the most being against the AAP (90), the BJP (75), the Congress (60) and the BSP (23).
As for the single-window clearance system set up at all district election offices, Mr. Dev said the 36-hour deadline has been met to grant permission to political parties to hold rallies and processions.
“There are nodal officers in all nine districts who are granting timely permission and meeting the deadline. However, the election office will not force the local administration to provide permission to anyone. Our job is to make sure that the political parties concerned are either granted a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ in a time-bound manner.”
