By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal:The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, (BJP), in Madhya Pradesh received a setback on Tuesday when Election Commission of India, (ECI), filed a complaint against the Public Health Engineering and Co-operatives Minister Gauri Shankar Bisen for alleged violation of the model code of conduct.
The Madhya Pradesh Police on the complaint of ECI has registered a case against Bisen for bribery and inducement on the alleged charge of distributing watches to journalists and party workers at a program in Seoni district of the state on Friday last. The FIR has been registered under Section171 (d) and 171 (e) of Indian Penal Code on the charges of inducement and bribery.
It may be mentioned here that the incident had been reported in the local media and a complaint was made to the state’s Chief Electoral Officer, (CEO), J.S. Mathur by the Seoni district collector Manohar Dubey.
On Friday Bisen was caught on camera distributing wrist watches to some persons at a function held in Seoni. CEO Mathur had asked Seoni District Collector Manohar Dubey to fully investigate and report the matter in detail. On Monday the CEO received report from Dubey. The report was forwarded to the Election Commission on the same day which took action on Tuesday by filing FIR to register a case against the erring minister Bisen.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee, MPCC), has demanded the resignation of Bisen on moral grounds for violating the model code of conduct
Soon after Bisen was booked, MPCC spokesperson Manak Agarwal in a statement said that the minister should resign on moral grounds or the Governor should sack him from the Madhya Pradesh Cabinet as the police has registered a case against him following Seoni Collector and District Returning Officer Manohar Dubey’s inquiry report.
Agarwal reasoned that since the police registered a case against Bisen and the CEO sending his report to the Election Commission of India in this regard, it was amply clear that the Minister had violated the model code of conduct and he should resign.
He said Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan should ask Bisen to resign. “If the CM favours him, the Governor should sack him from the MP cabinet,” he added.([email protected])