EC team's report on Mainpuri soon

LUCKNOW: The Election Commission has felt that in view of probes being conducted in Mainpuri parliamentary constituency, the repolling on this politically sensitive seat, along with that of Karchana assembly seat, could not be completed before November 30. The second team of the EC that reached Mainpuri on Monday, is likely to submit its report in a couple of days.The polling in these constituencies was completed on October 13. In view of these facts, the model code of conduct will stand relaxed till further orders of the commission, EC sources said. The commission, after considering various complaints regarding intimidation of voters and large-scale irregularities in the conduct of poll and repoll on October 15, had found a prima facie case for examination of all relevant records of entire Mainpuri parliamentary constituency. This called for sending of second team to the constituency, said an EC official. Some of the clues left by the observers weighed heavy on the mind of the EC team and they decided to probe them further, said the official. The observers had served notices to officials of the hydel project for misusing the official vehicles in favour of Samajwadi Party candidates. This work should have been left to the returning officer for the constituency. District magistrate Neena Sharma was the returning officer. Similarly officer in-charge in Mainpuri Vijay Shanker Gupta had also served notices to some persons for violation of the model code of conduct there. This overlapping of actions should be probed by the EC's second team which has Tapas Kumar and KS Wifred, both senior officials of the ESI. The observers had to personally visit the police station to get their messages across to EC's Delhi office, which is considered a lapse on the part of district administration. Meanwhile, a decision on Karchana assembly constituency is likely to be taken on Tuesday, said the official.