At least 12 FIRs were registered for different violations of Model Code of Conduct in the three constituencies of Gautam Budh Nagar since the announcement of the poll schedule on January 4 - when the MCC came into effect.
According to the data from the district administration, two of the FIRs were registered against BJP leaders including party's Noida candidate Pankaj Singh, Dadri candidate Tejpal Nagar for MCC violations like holding procession without permission and holding a public rally in communally-sensitive Bisada village, respectively.
However, it doesn't mean that the violations have reduced as FIRs have not been registered in some violations like cash seizure instances where the Income tax department would decide whether to lodge an FIR or not.
Other FIRs include the one against Rashtriya Lok Dal's Kamal Sharma for holding a public meeting without permission in Jewar.
Looking at the trends, it is clear that only the candidates have been named in the FIRs when there are over hundreds of supporters involved in an offence, who are named as "others".
Home Minister Rajnath's Singh son Pankaj Singh has also been booked for MCC violation during his nomination filing process for carrying out a "procession without permission" under Section 188 of the IPC.
SHO of Surajpur police station, where the FIR has been filed, confirmed that while Pankaj has been named in the FIR, others who participated in the procession including BJP MP Dr. Mahesh Sharma have not been named.
Interestingly, there is confusion regarding the total number of violations among the district administration and the police too.
While the Sector 20 SHO AP Singh said that an FIR was lodged under Section 188 against SP candidate Sunil Choudhary as vehicles of party supporters' had halted traffic for over half an hour at the DND Flyway during his welcome, ADM (Finance) Keshav Kumar said that the violation has not been reported to the district administration so far.
The other cases have been lodged in Surajpur, Kasna, Rabupura, Jewar, Bisrakh and Ecotech III areas for violations like wine seizure, political wall writing, cash seizure, etc.
Police officials said that while wall writing attracts a fine of only Rs. 500, in case of a cash seizure, an FIR is lodged only after the income tax department takes note of the case, which is a tedious process.
While Rs. 12,12,000 was seized from the Kasna police station area, cash amounting to Rs. 1, 49, 650 was seized from the Surajpur police station ahead of the polls.
Experts, however, say that the process of conviction after a poll violation is reported is extremely slow.
Major General Anil Verma, head of Association of Democratic Reforms, which conducts election watches and scrutinises affidavits of candidates contesting elections along with the National Election Watch (NEW), told TOI that many cases of MCC violation are dropped as soon as the party comes to power with the court observing that the complaint was "politically-motivated".
