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Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD on Friday targeted the State Election Commission (SEC) "for issuing a show cause notice to BJD leader and Finance minister Prasanna Acharya for his reported controversial "no funds" remark without waiting for the District Collector's report on the incident.
The SEC had on Thursday issued a show cause notice to Acharya who during an election campaign at Bargarh had reportedly said that being the Finance Minister of the state he would block funds for civic body of the area if people there vote for the Congress in the forthcoming polls.
State Election Commissioner A K Tripathy, who received written complaints from the Congress and the BJP against Acharya, had issued a show cause notice to the Minister on Thursday asking why his speech would not be considered as the violation of model code of conduct.
Acharya, who claimed he was yet to receive any such notice, however, did not deny the allegation made against him.
"I came to know about the SEC's show cause notice from newspapers. I will reply to the notice after receiving it from SEC officially, but not now," Acharya told reporters after casting his vote in Bargarh today.
BJD Vice-President and Health minister Damodar Rout, however, trained guns at the SEC. "How can the SEC issue show cause notice to the minister when the district collector of Bargarh is yet to submit his report," Rout questioned.
Accusing Tripathy of "violating" the model code of conduct himself by issuing show cause notice just a day before the polling, Rout said, "The SEC's action will affect poll prospect of the ruling BJD. He could have done so after the polling and after getting report of the collector."
Tripathy when contacted said the SEC has issued the show cause notice after verifying different angles.
Meanwhile, Congress and BJP strongly condemned the Health minister for targeting the SEC.
"It is unfortunate that a senior minister like Rout is making SEC a party. The SEC has not violated any provision of the model code of conduct," said former law minister and senior BJP leader B B Harichandan.
"How can Rout make such allegation when Finance Minister is not denying anything. Let Acharya deny the allegation,"OPCC president Jaydev Jena said.
