BHUBANESWAR: THE State unit of BJP on Tuesday urged the Election Commission to disqualify membership of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik from the Assembly for allegedly furnishing false information relating to election expenditure in his affidavit in the 2014 Assembly election.
A delegation of the BJP led by vice-president of the party Sameer Mohanty submitted a memorandum to the Election Commission through Chief Electoral Officer DN Gupta in his office here.
Alleging discrepancies in the accounts of expenditure filed before the Election Commission through separate affidavits by the Chief Minister and his party (BJD), the memorandum said while Naveen is stated to have received `13,10,625 crore from the party, the affidavit filed by the BJD said he was given `16,48,320 through two separate cheques. Having furnished incorrect expenditure of accounts, Naveen is guilty of violating the provisions of the Representation of People Act, 1951 and is liable to proceeded by the Commission, the BJP said.
Holding the high constitutional office like the Chief Minister, Naveen, who is also the BJD president, has scant regard for the constitutional authority which has been vested with the responsibility of conducting free and fair elections, the BJP said and urged the Election Commission to disqualify Naveen from contesting election for three years.