Delhi Police in overdrive to ensure election code

August 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The model code of conduct in poll-bound Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana and Maharashtra, where voting to elect new state governments will be held Oct 13, came into effect Monday. The model code of conduct comes into effect from today (Monday) in the all three states, Chief Election Commissioner Navin Chawla told reporters while announcing the poll schedule for the three Congress-ruled states.

May 11th, 2009 LUCKNOW - Sitting Amroha MP Harish Nagpal, who is again contesting the polls as an independent candidate, has been booked for violating the model code by distributing lunch packets to voters, police said Monday. 'A case under section 171 E (bribery) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered against Nagpal,' police inspector Girish Kothiya told IANS by telephone.

May 9th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subhash Arya Saturday complained to the Election Commission about Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit's alleged violation of the model code of conduct. In a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Navin Chawla, Arya said Dikshit's statement Friday, expressing her desire to bring the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the Delhi Police under the state government's jurisdiction to end multiplicity of authorities, was a 'policy matter and should have been held back' in view of the fifth and final phase of elections May 13.

May 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Two days before polling in the national capital, the Delhi election commission Tuesday said 265 people have been arrested for defacement of property and 341 people under the Excise Act. Since the model code of conduct came into force, Delhi Police have registered 348 cases under the Delhi Prevention of Defacement of Property Act and arrested 265 people.

May 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Election Commission Monday let off the officials of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, responsible for releasing advertisements which violated the model code of conduct. Appearing before the poll panel, the director general of the organising committee said the release of the advertisements was not intended to violate the poll code and 'it was totally a bonafide exercise', Election Commission officials told reporters here.

April 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Election Commission Saturday issued notice to senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh for allegedly threatening to 'use' the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati. Terming it as violation of the model code of conduct, the panel asked him to reply by 5 p.m.

April 20th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Election Commission's action on violation of the model code of conduct is 'not stringent enough', an official in the Delhi chief electoral offiicer's (CEO) office said Monday. J.K Sharma, Delhi's joint electoral officer, said that for these polls they have been receiving complaints on violations of the model code of conduct from different political party leaders, but most have been on frivolous ground.

April 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - As political leaders brace for the Lok Sabha polls beginning Thursday, the Election Commission has asked all parties to scrupulously observe the Model Code of Conduct and set high standards of electoral morality. In a written communication sent to all recognised national and state political parties late Sunday, the poll panel said: 'The Election Commission expects that all political parties, their leaders, workers and supporters as well as their candidates shall scrupulously observe the Model Code of Conduct in letter and spirit.' While expressing unhappiness at the flouting of norms of the Model Code of Conduct, the Election Commission also asked parties to conduct their electoral campaigns in a way that set 'high standards of electoral morality so as to ensure the integrity and purity of the exercise'.

March 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Election Commission of India Sunday asked union Minister for Mines Sis Ram Ola to explain why he violated the model code of conduct by inaugurating a new school in Rajasthan. Ola was shown by a news channel inaugurating newly built rooms of a government school in Rajasthan March 8.

March 21st, 2009 LUCKNOW - R.S. Kushwaha, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate from Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli seat, has been charged with violating the model code of conduct for using mikes without permission, police said Saturday.

March 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Election Commission on Wednesday slapped fresh notices on both Varun Gandhi and the Bharatiya Janata Party seeking their response by Friday to what it termed were clear violations of the Model Code of Conduct. Gandhi has been charged with issuing anti-communal statements during a rally in his Pilibhit constituency, and the Election Commission has even ordered a video tracking of his entire campaign.

March 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Election Commission Tuesday directed Uttar Pradesh's chief electoral officer (CEO) to file a criminal case against Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate in Pilibhit Varun Gandhi for making allegedly communal campaign speeches. '...Election Commission directs CEO Uttar Pradesh to file a case under the Indian Penal Code and Representation of People's Act against Varun Gandhi for violation of the model code of conduct,' said an Election Commission statement here.

March 13th, 2009 CHENNAI - Election Commissioner Navin Chawla today said that there would zero tolerance on violations of the model code of conduct. Speaking after a review meeting on the poll preparedness for the coming Lok Sabha polls in Tamil Nadu, he said, "The commission would not tolerate any deviation in this.

March 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Taking note of terror attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Pakistan, Delhi Police Commissioner Y.S. Dadwal Tuesday said his force would provide full security to matches of the Indian Premier League and the Commonwealth Games scheduled in the national capital.

January 7th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Violation of the model code of conduct of the Election Commission is no ground to set aside the election of a candidate as the guidelines do not have legal sanctity, a Delhi court has ruled. The model code of conduct apparently has no statutory backing and many of its provisions are not legally enforceable and it is the political parties which have themselves consented to abide by the principles embodied in the code, Additional District Judge Kamini Lau said in a ruling this week.