The team accompanied by police personnel seized two unopened bundles of a local newspaper containing about 1000 copies, 40 party flags and 200 pamphlets published by the Auto-rickshaw drivers' association headed by party leader Ivan D'Souza.
When asked as to what is the nature of violation, the Sector Officer refused to divulge any further detail and said that the action was taken following receipt of a complaint on the 1077 helpline set up by the district administration. A written report to the Returning Officer will be made on the operation wherein prima facie appearance of violation of code of conduct will be mentioned.
Advocate MP Noronha from the Congress who was present when the raid took place, later told Coastaldigest.com that there is no real basis for the officials to claim that there has been violation of the code of conduct.
“Nowhere does the rule mention that one cannot purchase newspapers. Nor does the code of conduct say that there cannot be flags in party office or pamphlets cannot be printed. We don't even know who kept these bundles of newspapers in the office. The newspaper is said to be dated April 17 and in case we wanted to distribute it among people, we would have done it long back since the date is old. There is no question of the expenditure factor coming in either. The expenditure norms say that a candidate cannot exceed the Rs.16 lakh limit. We have not crossed it and there is still time to include expenses in our account”, Mr. Noronha said.
Congress leaders and workers present on the occasion alleged that this is a ploy by the BJP to tarnish the image of Mr. Lobo and hurt his chances in the election.
“This is a trick played by the BJP. The Deputy Commissioner is also hand in glove with them. People in the BJP know that Mr. Lobo is all set to win this time so they are resorting to such gimmicks to hurt his chances”, a Congress worker told Coastaldigest.com.
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