Plea against tele-polling dismissed

Chandigarh, February 15

The Punjab and Haryana High Court today made it clear that the Election Commission (EC) would look into “tele-polling” issue in accordance with law, if a complaint in this regard was filed before it.

The direction came as the Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun Palli dismissed as withdrawn a petition seeking directions to “appropriate” investigating agency to look into a campaign run by a political party between January 13 and January 17.

The Bench was told that the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) announced an opinion poll soliciting from the public their choice for the chief ministerial candidate for Punjab. For the purpose, the party also declared a mobile number on which the people could give their opinion. The party announced the results, claiming that Bhagwant Mann’s name had been finalised on the basis of the votes polled in the tele-poll.

The Bench was also told that several complaints were filed by various political parties against the AAP alleging that tele-polling was a gross violation of the model code of conduct. —