The Election Commission (EC) said on Sunday that it expected all the States going to elections in the next two months to abide by the “sound convention” of presenting only a vote-on-account rather than a full budget.
The Commission's remarks came in the backdrop of West Bengal Speaker H.A. Halim saying that the EC should have announced the State's poll schedule taking into account the budget session of the House. The Trinamool Congress had opposed the State government's reported plan to present a full budget.
Mr. Halim had said that even a pro-people announcement in the vote-on-account during the budget session would not amount to violation of election model code of conduct. He said the EC should have consulted the State before coming out with the schedule.
“Model Code of Conduct does not apply to internal functioning of State Legislatures. But there is a sound convention that election-going State governments do not present full-scale budget during enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct and instead go for vote-on-account,” Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi said.
