Ahead of the first phase of assembly elections in Bihar, the Congress and the Janta Dal (united) approached the Election Commission of India and requested it to issue directions to television channels to prohibit them from telecasting live footage of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches in other parts of Bihar.
The first phase of elections is on Monday and the second phase is on October 16. Both the political parties petitioned the ECI that if possible, the BJP should be given instructions to not schedule PM’s rallies in other parts of Bihar on the day of polling as live telecast of his rally is likely to influence the voters in constituencies, where the polling would be on.
The letter signed by Ajay Maken of the Congress and K.C Tyagi and Pawan Verma of the JD (U) said that since telecast of PM’s speech was a violation of model code of conduct under the Representation of the People Act.
Meanwhile, the Income Tax authorities have informed the EC that in the run up to the assembly elections in Bihar, they have recovered Rs. 19 crore of unaccounted cash. The money, in circulation through hawala route was recovered after a sting operation by a television channel in September this year.
A statement issued by the EC said that Rs. 5 crore of the unaccounted money was recovered from nine persons in Delhi and Rs 13.75 crore from four persons in Muzaffarpur in Bihar. The EC has also asked all the concerned agencies to share real time information on any illegal financial dealings regarding the Bihar elections.
