Polls — Sena-BJP caught napping

The Minister apprehended constitutional problem in the event the monsoon session of the state legislature is not held in July. As per the legal provisions, a session of the state legislature has to be held once in six months or otherwise the assembly has to be dissolved.“Our last session concluded on April 23. As such, the next session has to be held within six months – before October. In the event, the session is not held within the stipulated period, then the assembly has to be dissolved,” the Minister added.

Moreover, the EC’s announcement has also put paid to the efforts of Chief Minister Narayan Rane and his other cabinet colleagues to push through as many populist proposals as they could before the model code of conduct was enforced. Chief Minister Narayan Rane, high-profile Public Works Minister Nitin Gadkari and Minister of state for Railways Ram Naik will be the immediate victims of the stringent code which comes into effect immediately.

As per the guidelines prescribed by the Election Commission, once the model code of conduct comes into force, cabinet members are restrained from participating in government programmes and taking populist decisions.

Rane had planned a series of programmes and special cabinet meetings in next couple of days to ensure that allpopulist decisions are taken by the time the code of conduct came into force. In fact he had even asked his cabinet colleagues to expedite all the pending proposals and place them before the cabinet before the code of conduct came into force.

“The Chief Minister had planned special cabinet meetings on Wednesday and Thursday. However, now there is uncertainty over the meetings,” a senior Minister said.

Minister of State for Railway and Home Ram Naik had declared that the Mumbai Vikas Rail Corporation will be officially launched on July 14 at a special function in the city. In view of the code of conduct, the launching of the corporation is likely to be delayed.

“For that function also, we will have move the Election Commission, since it will also be attended by the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minster and central cabinet members,” the Minister added.

More than the Chief Minister Narayan Rane and Naik, Gadkari will be main victim of the code of conduct. Ever since the dissolution of the Lok Sabha,Gadkari was on the forefront to launch new projects and inaugurate completed projects.

True to his promise, Gadkari ensured that a record number of flyovers are completed before the stipulated time. “Out of the 55 flyovers, 18 have already been completed,” according to a BJP Minister.

Meanwhile, a senior official of the election branch said, the two main functions – presentation of award to Sunil Gavasar and launching of the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation, will not be affected provided the Chief Minister and other cabinet members gave an undertaking that they will not make political speeches or appeal to the audience to vote for the Sena-BJP alliance. “If they give us an undertaking in writing, then there is no question of halting the programme,” the official said.

Gill ready to consider simultaneous polls

NEW DELHI: The Election Commission could consider simultaneous polls to the Maharashtra Assembly along with elections to the Lok Sabha if the government approached it, Chief ElectionCommissioner M S Gill said tonight. “Maharashtra seems to have two sets of thoughts. If they come to us, we will look into it,” Gill told a private TV network.