EC disqualifies Madhya Pradesh cabinet minister for ‘paid news’ 

Eight years after the defeated Congress candidate Rajendra Bharti complained about false affidavits and Paid News in 2009, Election Commission on Friday ordered the disqualification of Narottam Mishra, a cabinet minister in Madhya Pradesh.

He has also been debarred from contesting elections for the next three years. While his membership of the Assembly has ceased with immediate effect, and though Congress demanded that he be dropped from the ministry or he should resign on moral grounds, the chief minister or the BJP has not yet reacted to the demand.

Said to enjoy considerable clout locally, Mishra holds portfolios of Water Resources and PR in the state cabinet. While he is expected to file an appeal in the high court against EC’s order and buy more time, demand for his resignation on moral grounds is likely to gather momentum in the coming days.

Mishra, who is an MLA from Datia, had submitted an audited expenditure of ₹2.40 lakh in his campaign during the 2008 assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh. The ceiling on electoral expenses at that time was ₹10 lakhs.

In his complaint to the Election Commission, however, Bharti alleged that the BJP leader had omitted mentioning several expenditures in his statement of expense. He specifically mentioned 42 paid advertisements in newspapers, expense incurred on holding public rallies, and distribution of calendars to voters besides expenditure incurred on diesel used by his election agent.

In a separate complaint Madhya Pradesh Congress Committee ( MPCC) had accused the BJP candidate of amnesia and not including expenses on distribution of saris and liquor among the voters.

The BJP MLA from Datia had challenged the jurisdiction of the Election Commission and when the High Court threw out the petition, went in appeal to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court finally vacated the stay in July, 2016 and ruled that the Election Commission was free to deal with the complaint.

The Election Commission then served notices and asked for response from both the District Election Officer as well as the Chief Election Officer, Madhya Pradesh besides the newspapers concerned.

The DEO and the CEO, Madhya Pradesh reported that the BJP MLA had filed the affidavits in accordance with the law and the newspapers denied that Mishra had released any advertisement to them. The Election Commission, however, found sufficient evidence to conclude that Mishra was not only complicit in releasing the ‘paid news’, he also benefitted from them.

Mishra in his response to the EC claimed that his political rivals may have issued the ‘paid news’ to discredit him.