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The Congress on Friday demanded what the outcomes of the 15 complaints regarding the violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) that the party had filed with the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). The party claimed that it had not yet received a response on these 15 complaints from the CEO despite them being filed days ago.
A day after the CEO rejected the complaint of the Congress which said that the appointment of the two deputy chief ministers was a violation of the MCC, party spokesperson Adv Rohit Bras de Sa told the media at the party headquarters that this reply of the CEO wasn’t communicated to the party.
“We came to know of the decision through the media and social media. It was not communicated to us. Besides, the CEO only responded to our complaint because we filed a petition in the High Court,” said De Sa, who approached the High Court 20 days after filing the complaint with the CEO and the Election Commission of India (ECI).
“The day we approached the High Court, the CEO responds to our complaint. Must we file 15 more writ petitions in the High Court before the CEO responds to them?” he questioned.
De Sa said that the High Court served a copy of the Congress’ petition to the CEO, which was what prompted the CEO to act.
Meanwhile, spokesperson Trajano D’Mello said that the CEO should have given the Congress a chance to file a rejoinder to the complaint. He also alleged that the CEO had not followed the guidelines of the Election Commission which states that all complaints regarding violations should be addressed within 48 hours from the time the complaint was made, whereas the CEO took more than 20 days.
The Congress’ most recent complaint of code violation was filed on Thursday regarding Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho calling the Indian Air Force “His Airforce” meaning “Modi’s
airforce.”
