Amit Shah, union ministers visits to Bihar violate MCC: JD-U to Election Commission

NEW DELHI: JD(U) today objected to visits of BJP chief Amit Shah and central ministers to Bihar for yoga day events tomorrow and urged Election Commission to stop them, saying this was in violation of Model Code of Conduct put in force due to Legislative Council elections.

They said the Chief Election Officer has stopped Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's statewide interactions with people under an outreach exercise called ' Jan Sanvaad Karyakram (Dialogue with people programme)' due to the Model Code of Conduct and wondered how can the BJP leaders' visits be allowed.

Urging the Election Commission to stop visits of Shah and several union ministers to the state, JD(U) MPs K C Tyagi and Pavan Varma said these are "a clear attempt to influence voters".

"The Yoga day celebration is welcome but while the Model Code of Conduct is on for the elections, the BJP President... half a dozen central ministers are visiting Bihar for the function which is a clear violation of the conduct," they said in a letter to the commission.

"We strongly hope you will kindly put a ban on Amit Shah's and other central ministers' visit to Bihar to participate in the yoga-related programmes," they said.

The Chief Minister's programme has been going on for some time and is part of the party's exercise to come out with a vision document for Bihar, Varma said.

"If this has been banned, then how can the commission allow BJP leaders and ministers to take part in the yoga day event."