Govt clarifies on the EC issue, BJP to oppose

Denying that the union government was trying to curtail the powers of the Election Commission of India, the home ministry admitted that “incidental references” were made on the issue of the model code of conduct in the meeting of the Group of Minister (GoM) on corruption on September 30 last year.

The present crisis for the United Progressive Alliance government started after some reports indicated that the legislative secretary was asked to prepare a presentation before the GoM on corruption for the meeting on February 22 to give statutory backing to the instructions related to the model code of conduct issued by the Election Commission during polls. The proposal, if implemented, would allow model code violations to be tried in courts and not by the Election Commission.