Congress’ Pune Lok Sabha candidate Vishwajeet Kadam is in trouble yet again. The Maharashtra State Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) set up by the Election Commission for the surveillance of paid news has ruled that Mr. Kadam paid for a news story that appeared in a prominent Marathi newspaper.
The story which stated that several Dalit organisations had supported Mr. Kadam did not merit six columns and was represented “disproportionately,” MCMC sources told The Hindu .
Last week, the Pune district MCMC took cognisance of the story and forwarded it to the State MCMC, which then sent a notice to the Congress leader seeking an explanation. Mr. Kadam presented the letters of Dalit organisations, Arun Khore, who is part of the Pune MCMC, said.
“All the letters had used similar language and the same font. The signatures too were in the same handwriting. The authenticity of the letters was doubtful,” Mr. Khore said.
On Saturday, the State MCMC headed by Chief Electoral Officer Nitin Gadre upheld the Pune MCMC’s stand that Mr. Kadam had indeed paid for the news story.
A day before the polls in Pune, Mr. Kadam was booked for bribery.
