The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea moved by Odisha BJP leader against the Biju Janta Dal (BJD) ruling party in Odisha for allegedly using the ‘Conch’ symbol in advertising various State Government Schemes. The bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora asked the petitioner to approach the Orissa High Court for the reliefs sought in the petition.
The plea moved by Jatin Mohanty, General Secretary, BJP Odisha, through the plea said that alleged misuse of public funds by BJD, the ruling political party, while advertising various welfare schemes using the party symbol ‘Conch’ allotted by the Election Commission of India (ECI). The plea stated, “As per information received by one RTI activist, BJD dispensation has spent a whopping Rs. 378 crore in advertisements in the last five years. It spent over Rs 378.629 crore on self-propagation.”
It further stated that the advertisements include front pages of newspaper advertisements and roadside hoardings. “Similarly, the government had spent over Rs 61.94 crore on newspaper advertisements. The amounts in 2019-20 and 2020-21 were Rs 60 crore and over Rs 45 crore, respectively. With less than 20 months left for the 2024 general elections, the government has once again started spending money like water on advertisements. The RTI information reveals that the government has already spent Rs 76,27,39,000 on advertisements with no data on money spent on hoardings,” it added.
According to the petitioner, he approached the ECI on November 10 last year for the reliefs sought in the petition, which is pending, without taking any action against the respondent Odisha government and the BJD party resultant loss of huge amount of public money in the advertising process continuing every day. “As per the guiding principles of ECI, the party in power shall ensure that it has not used its official position for the purposes of its election campaign. Propagating a party’s symbol is the main object of the party’s election campaign. But if a party, whether ruling or in opposition, by misusing public funds for its own partisan ends, advertisement of its party symbol, even during non-election period, the party itself has acted in breach of salutary principles underlying the objects of the Model Code of Conduct,” stated the plea.
It further alleged that from the newspaper articles, hoarding, social media images and various other methods of advertisement, it appears that Biju Janta Dal had a clear motive for image makeover prior to the election. A move with such an intention is violative of the directions of this court as well as the directives of the Election Commission of India, it added.
The plea sought direction to Election Commission of India to take appropriate legal action against the ruling party in Odisha for violating the election symbols (reservation and allotment) order, 1968 and model code of conduct for the guidance of political parties and candidates of Election Commission of India. It also sought direction of prohibition restraining the BJD for making any further advertisement of welfare scheme of State Government of Odisha using the symbol ‘Conch’.
