Khurshid violated model code by minorities sub-quota remarks: EC

Feb 09, 2012 |

New Delhi

Tags:

The Election Commission today censured Union Minister for Law and Minority Affairs Salman Khurshid for his remarks on sub-quota for minorities finding them to be a violation of the model code of conduct for elections.

Khurshid, while campaigning for his wife Louise, a Congress candidate from Farrukhabad assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh, had promised the electorate last month that the party would increase the sub-quota for minorities to nine per cent, out of the 27 per cent Other Backward Classes (OBC) reservation.

The EC order came on BJP's complaint about Khurshid's remarks, asking the Commission to take action against him for violation of the model code of conduct.

The Election Commission - comprising Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi and Election Commissioners V S Sampath and H S Brahma, in its 15-page order, held that Khurshid had violated the model code of conduct and hoped and expected he would not repeat such violations.

"The Commission hereby censures Shri Salman Khurshid and hopes and expects that such violations of the model code of conduct would not be repeated by him in future," said the EC order.

It said "Salman Khurshid has violated the model code of conduct by making the abovesaid promise. The Commission, therefore, cannot help expressing its deep anguish and disappointment over his violation of model code of conduct.

"As a Union Minister for Law and Minority Affairs, he has an added responsibility of ensuring that the model code of conduct is observed in letter and spirit so that elections are conducted in a free and fair manner and all political parties enjoy a level-playing field in the matter of their election campaigns", the EC said.

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/125236" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-376d78a7c9d1f6fc7b466daaf1389921" value="form-376d78a7c9d1f6fc7b466daaf1389921" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="80628178" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>