UP Assembly Election 2012: Jayant Chaudhary gets Election Commission's clean chit

LUCKNOW: The Election Commission on Tuesday gave a clean chit to civil aviation minister Ajit Singh's son and RLD leader Jayant Chaudhary, who was caught on camera accepting cash from a local leader in Mathura.

After examination, it was found that there was no effort to woo the electorate by offering money and 51,000, which were seen changing hands, were being given for poll management, joint chief electoral officer Anita Meshram said.

Jayant Chaudhary would mention it in the expenditure register, which would be checked by the expenditure observer, she said and added the returning officer's report in this regard is being sent to the election officer.

According to the report, gram pradhan Than Singh was giving the money to the candidate for election management. Besides Chaudhary, a notice was also given to party candidate from Govardhan Megh Shyam Singh.

The EC had served Chaudhary a notice and he had replied on Tuesday. He had said he was addressing a meeting in support of RLD candidate from Govardhan and it was there that Than Singh handed over some money to him for election related work.

Chaudhary said that any kind of monetary assistance for elections from villagers is not a violation of the poll code. The letter addressed to the returning officer of Govardhan had sought cancellation of the notice served on him.

Earlier, he told the media that RLD is routinely funded by small contributions from villagers. The money is deposited in the accounts of the party candidates contesting the polls, he said.