EC warns Lalu against defying model code

PATNA: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Thursday issued a warning to RJD supremo Lalu Prasad to strictly adhere to the model code of conduct in the ongoing Bihar polls.
The poll panel had served a show-cause notice to Lalu for allegedly making caste-based comments at an election rally in Raghopur in Vaishali district on September 27. Lalu had reportedly invoked the Yaduvanshi card and said it (the poll) was a fight between forward and backward castes.
A reply was submitted by the RJD chief on October 5, after reviewing which the ECI has found Lalu guilty of violating Section I (subsection I and IV) of the model code of conduct and warned him to adhere to it strictly.
Section I of the model code of conduct deals with general conduct during polls and subsection I says “No party or candidate shall indulge in any activity which may aggravate existing differences or create mutual hatred or cause tension between different castes and communities, religious or linguistic.”
Subsection IV (section I) of the model code of conduct, which was enforced on September 9, says, “All parties and candidates shall avoid scrupulously all activities which are ‘corrupt practices’ and offences under the election law.”