EC advices Mandal not to move out of his constituency

Election Commission today "specifically instructed" Birbhum District Magistrate to advice controversial Trinamool Congress leader Anubrata Mandal, who was put under 24x7 surveillance, not to move beyond his constituency.
"The Election Commission has specifically instructed the District Magistrate to advice him (Mandal) not to move beyond his constituency ... That advice has been communicated to Mandal," Additional Chief Electoral Officer Dibyendu Sarkar said.
The EC had yesterday issued instructions to keep Mandal under 24x7 surveillance of the Central police force in the presence of a magistrate during the entire election period.
Sarkar, however, said no political leader whether he is a candidate or a voter or an election agent would be able to move out of his voting area till the polls were over.

"A political leader can stay in the assembly constituency where he is the candidate, he can stay in the area where he is the voter or an election agent but will not be able to move beyond the area where the poll is being conducted for 48 hours till the completion of polls.
"This is not specifically for Mandal only. This is the stand which is clearly there in the Commission's instruction," Sarkar said.

He said Mandal has been put under complete surveillance till the election process is over (May 22). "But surveillance does not mean that there is restriction on his movements. The surveillance is specially on his activities specially public utterances and public meetings and those will be put on record."

The Additional Chief Electoral Officer, however, said
that there would be no restriction on Mandal's campaigning.
To a question whether the chief secretary could reply to a showcause notice served by the EC to the chief minister of a state, Sarkar said, "I cannot comment on that. The Commission will decide on this. It's a matter of interpretation and I will not interpret."
It was reported by a section of the media that the chief secretary has replied to the EC on the showcause it served to Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee for violating the model code of conduct.