BHUBANESWAR: Odisha’s ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on Wednesday elected Sambit Patra, the BJP’s Puri assembly constituency candidate, for using a photo of Sri Jagannath Temple in an advertisement published in local media. I filed a complaint with the Management Committee (EC).
In its petition to Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar, the BJD highlighted that the full-page advertisement, which features a picture of Patra with the Sri Jagannath temple in the background, also features the BJP’s ‘lotus’ symbol.
The BJD also said on Monday that Patra had made “offensive” comments that “Lord Jagannath is a follower of Mr. Modi” which had seriously affected the sentiments of millions of Odias across the world. It pointed out.
Patra later clarified that his remarks were careless and expressed regret, but the BJD maintained that the advertisement violated the model code of conduct for political parties and candidates.
“But the issue here is that they published a full-page ad with his photo and a temple in the background along with the party symbol. We strongly oppose this and this is a violation of voting regulations for political parties and candidates. We consider this to be a violation,” the BJD said. . The party demanded that immediate action be taken against Patra by issuing a formal notice and making it public.
They also argued that since Mr. Patra’s photo was featured in the advertisement, the expenditure should be recorded as Mr. Patra’s personal campaign expenses, rather than as party expenditure. BJD estimated the total cost of advertising to be around Rs 25 million.
It also noted that the cost of the prime minister’s roadshow in support of Patra was not allocated to his campaign expense account. BJD asked the EC to ensure that all related expenses are properly recorded in Patra’s expense account.
Neither the BJP nor Patra could be reached for comment.
Published May 22, 2024, 14:29 IST
