Congress complains against Khanduri over advertisements

Dehra Dun: Congress today complained to the Election Commission that Uttarakhand Chief Minister BC Khanduri had violated the Model Code of Conduct by publishing advertisements running into lakhs of rupees. State Congress spokesman Surendra Kumar said in his complaint that Khanduri has published advertisements in national and local dailies spending lakhs of rupees. [caption id=“attachment_189218” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Uttarakhand Chief Minister BC Khanduri. Image courtesy PIB”]  [/caption] The advertisements carried the chief minister’s photograph and a slogan “Khanduri hai zaroori” despite the fact that he himself is contesting the Assembly election from Kotdwar as a BJP candidate, he said. Kumar pointed out that the EC has fixed a limit on the expenditure by a candidate at Rs 11 lakh but Khanduri has already spent nearly Rs 1 crore on such advertisements. Meanwhile, the EC has set up a public grievance cell at Uttarakhand Secretariat in Dehra Dun to receive election-related complaints ahead of the 30 January polls. Uttarakhand chief electoral officer Radha Raturi said in order to redress different complaints being received during the election process, the cell has been constituted. Till date, she said 75 complaints have been received by the cell out of which 64 have already been redressed while others have been forwarded to the officers concerned. The maximum number of 28 complaints has been received from Haridwar district alone, she added. PTI